Thinking about getting a gay EV? Think again…those lithium batteries burn real good:
Anthony Genet and his two kids had a dramatic end to their ten-day holiday when their hybrid BMW i3 vehicle abruptly caught fire on the Whangamoa between Picton and Nelson.
The fire was preceded by a warning on the car’s dashboard screen: “Can’t continue journey, contact the dealership immediately”.
Genet said there was no safe place to pull over when the warning appeared, so he had to take two more turns along the road before stopping, “then my son said he saw smoke coming out of the back of the car”.
Genet, a glassblower by trade, said he was comfortable with fire and so kept a cool head while he and the kids got out of the car and removed as much luggage as they could.
Stuff
Perhaps EVs should be made to have fire suppression systems fitted…though I’m not sure there’s much that can be done to put out lithium fires. The saving grace with that one was that it had pretty much burnt out by the time fire crews got there. The clean up would have been really simple after a fire of that intensity.
But the most important question that Stuff failed to ask the owner was: ‘How are those emissions totals looking now?’
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