Ya Know… I’m becoming increasingly uncomfortable with EVs

In principal I like Electric Vehicles.

From a user perspective, I don’t like the range issues, I don’t like the time to recharge, I question the reality of their “Green” status, and I especially don’t like the expense to purchase one.

Lately I’ve been noticing articles describing fires where the vehicle appears to spontaneously start burning.

If you’re old enough, you may remember that most car fires seen in the summertime were VWs. This was a simple maintenance issue. If you didn’t pay attention to the oil level in the engine, then tried to fly down an LA freeway in 100°F temps, the engine block could catch fire. Folks who had their VW bug catch fire would almost always have time to get out of the car, and the fire dept would put the fire out in just a few minutes. Any vehicle fire is a big deal, especially if it happens in an area prone to wildfires.

My concern is that the EV fires often can’t easily be extinguished. Once compromised, the batteries continue to expose more lithium to the atmosphere which feeds the fire. Even cooling down after the initial cells that burned are extinguished, the surrounding battery cells can continue to melt. Then the cycle repeats.

There are multiple videos of Teslas bursting into flames while parked. One consistent thing I noticed in those videos is what looks like a torch blowing several feet away from the vehicle. This torch in all the videos I’ve watched, show up on the driver’s side of the vehicle between the driver’s door and the wheel.

One video shows a Tesla beginning to burn in a parking garage parked next to an Audi. I’d imagine that the Tesla’s insurance carrier wasn’t thrilled about having to cover a Tesla and an Audi. Other videos are available that show a Tesla that had already burned, been extinguished, and towed to an impound or junkyard lot, spontaneously reigniting the next day.

There is a report of a Tesla catching fire, shorting out the electronics and refusing to unlock the doors. The driver was trapped inside the vehicle at the time. Fortunately, a passerby found a handy brick to shatter the window with.

All of these incidents are concerning. Thus far, they’re few in number.

My concern is the increasing number of people driving Teslas in my community. We’re a mountain town, we are surrounded by forest, with the drought in California, the trees and brush are very dry. A careless cigarette or spark can cause a blaze that spreads very rapidly.

What happens when a Tesla, a Jaguar, or any of the other EV vehicles on the road catch fire in a driveway or wooded neighborhood?

Granted the same concern exists for a standard gas car, motorcycle, dirt bike, or quad runner. However, in all those instances the fire department can throw water on the whole mess and that’s the end of it. With an electric vehicle, that’s not the case.

What happens if the electric vehicle catches fire again while it’s being towed out of the area? Now you’ve got a torch literally being driven through a forest. If there’s already a brush fire being fought where the EV originally caught fire, resources are committed to that location. Then you have the same vehicle cause another fire a mile or two away because it flared up again?

How are the insurance companies going to handle an event as described? Does the EV owner’s auto insurance cover an entire neighborhood being burned?

Is this why auto and homeowner policies are rising so fast? Some insurance companies are already refusing to write homeowner policies in California due to the increased brush fire hazard.

They did the same thing years ago with earthquake policies. Now everyone has a shitty earthquake policy administered by the State of California. I say shitty, because the maximum payout is far less than the payout I had when my insurance company sold earthquake insurance. The California max payout wouldn’t begin to cover repairs to my home. I’d lose my home, or be forced to remortgage or sell at a substantial loss, and the payout from the state wouldn’t make a downpayment on a new home. For all I know, California might find a way to take taxes out of the payout too.

Can a community legitimately prevent EVs from being used within hazardous fire zones?