Photo: Moneyball via Twitter
A battery fire is the most dreadful event for an EV owner, but luckily, these are a lot fewer than people believe. This doesn’t mean they don’t happen, as the Chevrolet Bolt owners know very well. An XPeng P7 owner from China also found this the hard way after hitting an unidentified object on a highway near Shanghai.
The battery pack is the most expensive component of an electric vehicle but also the most vulnerable. Carmakers go a long way to protect the battery pack, and indeed, most crashes do not set an EV on fire. But this is not always true, especially as Li-Ion batteries are sensitive to objects penetrating the cells. This is because the shock can short-circuit the cells, leading to a thermal runaway or a fire in laymen’s language.
Most electric vehicles have their battery pack on the floor or, in the case of Tesla Model Y with a structural battery pack, as the floor. This allows for excellent mass distribution and also better space utilization. The downside is that the battery remains vulnerable when running over solid objects that hit it from underneath.
According to local reports, an XPeng P7 electric sedan was driving on a stretch of the Wenchuan Highway near Shanghai when it ran over an unidentified object on the road. The object was caught underneath the car and most probably caused damage to the battery pack. The XPeng P7 quickly burst into flames and burnt almost entirely despite the firefighters’ best efforts.
Luckily, the driver pulled over right after the impact as the smoke started to fill up the cabin. He escaped without injuries, but the car was destroyed by the fire that engulfed it soon after that. The investigators concluded that the object hitting the battery may have originated from a truck driving in front of the car on the highway.
Most electric vehicles have their battery pack on the floor or, in the case of Tesla Model Y with a structural battery pack, as the floor. This allows for excellent mass distribution and also better space utilization. The downside is that the battery remains vulnerable when running over solid objects that hit it from underneath.
According to local reports, an XPeng P7 electric sedan was driving on a stretch of the Wenchuan Highway near Shanghai when it ran over an unidentified object on the road. The object was caught underneath the car and most probably caused damage to the battery pack. The XPeng P7 quickly burst into flames and burnt almost entirely despite the firefighters’ best efforts.
Luckily, the driver pulled over right after the impact as the smoke started to fill up the cabin. He escaped without injuries, but the car was destroyed by the fire that engulfed it soon after that. The investigators concluded that the object hitting the battery may have originated from a truck driving in front of the car on the highway.
#XPeng on #P7 fire in Shanghai: An object, probably from a large size vehicle driving in front of #P7, fell off hitting & underpinning P7 #battery pack causing damage & fire.
— Moneyball (@DKurac) July 6, 2022
(ZHEV) pic.twitter.com/8lnuZieYdu
Google News