Post by TheoPost by ReclinerPost by Graeme Wall<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67967421>
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/25/electric-bus-flames-fire-putney-go-ahead-london-garage/>
An electric bus has burst into flames in London, just weeks after another
from the same fleet was engulfed, sparking panic among commuters.
What's interesting is that data gathering, funded by the Australian
https://www.evfiresafe.com/ev-battery-fire-data
only counted 3 lithium ion battery fires on buses globally in the first half
of 2023 (the most recent data).
They only count battery fires, rather than fires in other parts of the
vehicle. For example in the heating or other parts of the electrical
system.
There are some limitations on data availability as their purpose is to have
verified data rather than anecdata, but either they aren't battery fires or
London is very misfortunate.
Those figures definitely sound too low.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/26/the-electric-vehicle-fiasco-has-become-dangerous/
Extract:
When Sadiq Khan promised to clean up London’s air by introducing electric
buses, did he factor in the black smoke which poured out of the Number 265
as it burst into flames in Putney on Wednesday?
That followed two very similar fires in the past fortnight which consumed
vehicles from the same fleet. Paris has already had to withdraw a fleet of
electric buses after a couple of fires, while in Venice-Mestre last October
21 people died after an electric bus caught fire and plunged off a flyover.
The “race to net zero”, as the politicians like to describe it, isn’t just
expensive; it is dangerous. It isn’t only electric buses which burst into
flames, of course – Ken Livingstone’s infamous bendy buses also had a habit
of catching fire, and they were diesel-powered. But when electric vehicles
catch fire they can be a lot harder to put out due to “thermal runaway”
where one overheating cell leads to the neighbouring cell, setting off a
chain reaction.
With buses, the problem is even bigger than in cars because the batteries
are necessarily larger. The fires can’t be tackled in the same way as
petrol or diesel vehicle fires, and vehicles are in some cases being left
to burn themselves out.
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Venice tourist bus plunge leaves 21 dead
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67001518