In recent years, new energy vehicle power battery spontaneous combustion accidents have been common, and it is difficult to extinguish the fire at a fast speed. So are new energy electric vehicles safe?
New energy vehicles not only represent the future development direction of automobiles, but also new energy vehicles dominated by electric car have begun to continuously expand the market. However, with the further expansion of the scale of electric vehicles in recent years, concerns about the safety hazards of electric vehicles are becoming more and more serious, the most important of which is the fire of the power battery.
This makes the battery ignition seem to be equated with electric vehicles. In fact, this is due to the media's high attention to new energy vehicles, which has caused people to illusion, because according to incomplete statistics, there were 47 spontaneous combustion incidents of new energy vehicles reported by the media from January to July 2022. Just imagine that you can see such an event almost every 5 days, which is indeed very impactful to the audience's perceptual cognition.
But in fact, the spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles is much more serious. According to the latest data released by the fire department, the fire reports in the first quarter of 2022 showed that the spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles has reached 640. In this way, the media still has many reports.
But if we compare fuel vehicles, we will find that the current spontaneous combustion rate of new energy vehicles is lower.
Why do you want to say that it is currently? Because as of the first quarter of this year, there are 8.915 million new energy vehicles in my country. According to the spontaneous combustion data of 640 vehicles, the spontaneous combustion rate of new energy electric vehicles is 0.0072%, but according to statistics, the spontaneous combustion rate of ordinary fuel vehicles is between 0.01% and 0.02%, new energy electric vehicles seem to be safer.
But looking at the data over the past few years, this data has been rising from 0.0026% in 2002 to now. This is exactly what we need to pay attention to. We cannot say that new energy vehicles are safer, nor can we say that new energy vehicles are more dangerous. However, the fire characteristics of new energy vehicles' power batteries are even more important.
Because the power battery catches a very fast fire, once it catches a fire, it will cause the whole vehicle to burn quickly, and there is almost no possibility of extinguishing it. The only way to ensure the safety of surrounding personnel and property is to let them burn out is the final solution. Therefore, you must pay attention to safety when driving new energy vehicles on a daily basis.
Most of the causes of spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles come from batteries, and it is difficult to burn quickly. So what exactly is the cause?
Spontaneous combustion accidents of new energy electric vehicles mainly occur in three states. The first is the spontaneous combustion caused by accident collision, the second is in normal driving or stationary parking, and the third is in charge state. However, no matter which state the fire and spontaneous combustion is necessary, it will inevitably touch the most important power batteries of new energy vehicles, which exist in the car as a battery component.
Because its material is not only as flammable as gasoline, but also the internal structure of the battery is more complex. After the damage and short circuit, heat will be continuously released due to the increase in resistance. This undoubtedly adds fuel to the fire for batteries that need to cool down when a fire occurs. Moreover, the electrolyte and other components inside the battery contain oxides. It is possible to release oxygen during the combustion process. You should know that preventing combustion, in addition to isolating combustible materials, the most important thing is to reduce cooling and block oxygen.
power battery is installed on a car as a combustible substance, and it is almost impossible to separate after a fire. The temperature will even release more oxygen to help ignite when the resistance heat release cannot be reduced due to the condition that the temperature will not drop due to the resistance. It can be seen that the "excellent" performance of new energy vehicle power batteries in spontaneous combustion accidents, so fast combustion and difficulty in extinguishing will become a major pain point for spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles. This has no direct relationship with the quality of their power batteries. No matter whether the battery is good or bad, the combustion-enhancing effect will be consistent.
This is considered equal to all new energy vehicle brands. Whether it is a veteran of new energy vehicles like Tesla or BYD , or a rising star like Xiaopeng and NIO , whether it is a ternary lithium battery or lithium iron phosphate battery , it cannot escape the fate of spontaneous combustion.
However, what is more important is not the combustion-enhancing effect of the power battery after the spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles, but the risk of spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles itself. This is also the key to whether new energy vehicles can continue to develop vigorously in the future development, because the higher the probability of battery spontaneous combustion, the worse the safety of electric vehicles will be, and safety cannot be guaranteed, and there is no way to talk about anything else.
How does the power batteries of new energy vehicles cause spontaneous combustion, can the harm of spontaneous combustion be reduced, and how can the safety of drivers and passengers be ensured?
For the power batteries of new energy vehicles, the main reasons for spontaneous combustion are short circuits and thermal runaway. Short circuits are easy to understand. Usually, physical external forces cause damage to the battery pack and short circuits. For example, if a strong collision in an accident, the short circuit will cause the resistance to increase and release heat. Isn’t it natural for the fire to go with the flow. At the same time, if the battery encounters water corrosion, it will also cause a short circuit in the battery pack. Therefore, during daily use of new energy vehicles, it is very important to check whether the battery is safe.
So for most vehicles that are normally used, is it absolutely safe when there is neither external collision nor seawater immersion? In fact, this is not the case, because another major reason is that the battery's thermal runaway. Simply put, the battery's heat is no longer controlled, and this mainly occurs when the battery is overdischarged, which leads to the rapid aging of the service life of the battery pack. The same is true for fast charging, which will increase the potential risk of thermal runaway from the battery.
This is why many new energy electric vehicles have spontaneous combustion accidents when charging in underground garages. This is different from the spontaneous combustion of many fuel vehicles in high-temperature environments. Whether it catches fire and ignites depends largely on the performance of the car's power battery itself. However, as the use time of the car increases, many new energy vehicles are likely to encounter battery aging in two or three years.
Therefore, solving the safety performance of the battery is a key. Even if the battery catches fire, it is necessary to ensure that there will be no explosion within enough time and leave absolute escape time. This is a key topic in the research of new energy vehicles. As for more optimized equipment such as fire warning systems, it is icing on the cake.
. This is also the reason why electric vehicles have limited mileage, because if they blindly increase their mileage, they must use batteries beyond their limit, which is a greater test for the safety of batteries. However, I believe that with the continuous advancement of technology, the problem of power batteries of new energy vehicles will definitely be solved.
