Photo: Yangtze Evening News
At 5:39 AM on November 30, Nanjing firefighters received the warning that a Volvo XC90 Recharge had caught fire in an underground garage. It took them only 15 minutes to reach the location and extinguish the blaze. Volvo technicians also rushed to the scene to try to help determine what happened with the plug-in hybrid SUV.
The information we have now thanks to Yangtze Evening News is that the vehicle was probably plugged in when the fire started, but there’s no confirmation that the fire had to do with the battery pack so far. The fact that the fire was so easy to put down suggests it might not have been the case.
The pictures of the damaged vehicle show that the fire was just part of the problem. Twisted doors, hood, and other parts of the XC90 Recharge body demonstrate that there must have been an explosion as well, but it is not clear at this point if the fire caused a burst or if it was the other way around.
So far, there have been no other cases of XC90 Recharge fires that we are aware of, which could make this one the very first involving the Swedish SUV. We have contacted Volvo to learn what it has discovered so far and if it already has an explanation for the blaze.
With a relatively small 11.6-kWh battery pack, the Volvo XC90 Recharge offers an electric-only range of 18 miles (29 kilometers) as rated by the EPA. If battery pack issues really caused the fire, it could have been worse if the XC90 had a larger battery pack.
China has been experiencing a large number of EV and PHEV fires. Not long ago, a BYD Qin Pro caught fire in Beijing. The cases are occurring so frequently that the Insurance Association of China proposed in August that “new energy vehicles” get additional coverage against spontaneous fires.
The pictures of the damaged vehicle show that the fire was just part of the problem. Twisted doors, hood, and other parts of the XC90 Recharge body demonstrate that there must have been an explosion as well, but it is not clear at this point if the fire caused a burst or if it was the other way around.
So far, there have been no other cases of XC90 Recharge fires that we are aware of, which could make this one the very first involving the Swedish SUV. We have contacted Volvo to learn what it has discovered so far and if it already has an explanation for the blaze.
With a relatively small 11.6-kWh battery pack, the Volvo XC90 Recharge offers an electric-only range of 18 miles (29 kilometers) as rated by the EPA. If battery pack issues really caused the fire, it could have been worse if the XC90 had a larger battery pack.
China has been experiencing a large number of EV and PHEV fires. Not long ago, a BYD Qin Pro caught fire in Beijing. The cases are occurring so frequently that the Insurance Association of China proposed in August that “new energy vehicles” get additional coverage against spontaneous fires.
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