cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/620960
This accident could be a scene in a horror movie.
I’m not a Tesla fan by any measure, but I edited the headline for this post. The original headline made it seem like a specific feature of the Cybertruck trapped the victims, but then the article explains it was really that the battery was burning so fiercely that the police just couldn’t free them. The deadly feature of the accident was the lithium battery, which is common to many makes and manufacturers of EVs.
There’s only so much safeguarding you can do against the basic physics of storing enough high voltage energy to drive laps around your hometown in such a relatively small and locomotive package as an EV battery.
Yes, battery fires will happen sometimes, most frequently in an impact like this one, and they will burn long and hot until all the energy (fuel) is expended. The same thing would happen if you were to set a tank of gas on fire, since gas is another store of energy if a bit less volatile than live electricity. I am certain you will find examples of this with any EV OEM. That is why it is important for the occupants to be able to escape the vehicle, should that ever occur.
Fuck Tesla, their cars all suck squirrel nuts, the cybertruck most of all. All I’m saying is that a few battery fires involving an impact making the news does not prove there’s a statistically anomalous amount of battery fires with a particular brand.