Fires Caused by E-Bike Batteries

The fires can also go on for several days. See https://www.wgal.com/article/lithium-ion-batteries-still-bur...

So that's whats also in your Tesla if you bought one in 2021,an LFP Battery (Lithium ion). California will burn to the ground....lol. No combustable engines after 2035. Yep its the greatest thing since sliced bread but no one knows how to put the fires out and no one knows how to depose of them....but we gotta have it? In the end even if you do find another option you still need to depose the old ones. Ya ya dig a big hole.....lol

Maybe Joey B will make a deal with Putin as a gesture of good will, and he can send them to Siberia so the people can have a long lasting source of heat instead of burning wood in 55-gal barrels.

I guess hybrids are just as dangerous with their batteries. I have not heard of too many hybrids catching fires. It just seems to be the EVs.

LFP specifically refers to the high-iron content variant. It has lower specific energy density than most Lithium ion batteries, is a bit cheaper, more tolerant of charging to maximum level, and safer.

I don't think any of the e-bikes and scooters use them, yet. They'd be safer if they did. My model year 2023 Tesla model 3 RWD does have that chemistry.

More to the point, Tesla figured out before they built their first car that they would not be able to purchase lithium-ion cells with zero probability of bad cell failures. So they came up with a battery pack design which isolates the cells from each other well enough that failures don't normally propagate from the bad cell to any neighbors.

This has worked quite well in practice. In fact Tesla's have actual fire loss rates well over an order of magnitude lower than do gasoline engine cars in actual US service experience.

It is a pity that other companies designing lithium ion products have not gone to school on this aspect of Tesla design as well as one might hope. Not only the e-Bikes and scooters, but the Boeing 787 (which got a major design revision that means it can now tolerate a single cell failure quite safely).

…a few months ago. Seems the driver ran over a piece of debris in the road and it punctured the battery. The car caught on fire and the fire department was called. 12,000 gallons of water later, the FD had the fire out. The fire chief stated that it takes on average, 500 gallons of water to extinguish a gasoline fueled vehicle. But the electric vehicle batteries just keep burning and are almost impossible to get under control. Personally, I wouldn’t have one. They will eventually take the place of the gasoline engine, but a lot more research needs to be done and the infrastructure needs to be built out first. But, BBGG & K wants to put the cart before the horse. Go figure!

See https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/how-are-elect...

Look at John from PA's post
Nothing good there. They are good in the cold because they don't work.
Sweden can tell you about the hoops they go through to get them charged in winter. Oh ya California experienced winter last week, killed what 31?
We have that kind of snow all the time, doesn't kill anyone and streets are clear. But of course that's normal for us. I'm going to fight this ev stuff tooth and nail. Its real bad for the environment when they burn and the fumes will kill you. At least we can safely dispose of our gas guzzlers, they get recycled. Our batteries can be broken down. The end justifies the means. No it does not.

It's not just e-bikes, batteries catching fire capable of burning down structures are not a common problem but are a potential problem with all lithium ion batteries, which are what we have in smartphones and most other rechargeable-battery-powered electronic devices. Fire is why it's not legal to check a lithium ion battery in baggage if you're flying; it has to be in the passenger compartment where someone can try to put the fire out. Of course e-bike batteries are bigger than smartphone batteries.

I bought an after-market rechargeable lithium ion battery on amazon for my Dyson stick vacuum cleaner. It was a fraction of Dyson's price for a replacement battery. But the fire issue makes me nervous; I figure there's little accountability for the manufacturers of aftermarket batteries.

No E bike for me.

Another e-bike repair shop fire in Queens, east of Manhattan, New York City:

E-bikes eyed as possible cause in Queens fire - CBS New York https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/video/e-bikes-eyed-as-possib...

And here is yet another e-bike fire in Richmond Hill:

https://abc7ny.com/fire-ebike-store-queens-richmond-hill/129...

Fire at Queens e-Bike shop | The Cairns Post https://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/world/fire-at-queens-ebik...

Water is not used on a petroleum fire. It would just spread it. Maybe water shouldn't be used on Li fires either. If you starve the fire of O2, it seems like it would cease. That is what foam and CO2 does. Water just cools the fire. Obviously, cooling an Li fire doesn't work.

Actually drowning in lithium ion battery in water is standard.

Too many people remember their high school chemistry teacher tossing a little bit of metallic lithium into water and admiring the reaction. But the lithium in a lithium ion battery is bound up, so that little piece of high school knowledge is misplaced.

My geriatric memory comes up with sodium for that high school experiment.

My memory is weak on that point, but here is a video comparing three alkali metals for the "dip it in water and see what happens" experiment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McuGKTVDSME

Well, thanks! So much for my memory. Potassium is was.

That was, of course, before Lavoisier "invented" oxygen.

My memory of our high school chemistry laboratory experiment with metallic sodium (Na) and water (H2O) was the rapid fizzle of the speck of sodium on the water surface with the release of H2 (hydrogen) gas and the water in the beaker was changed to a sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH).

Na + H20 -----> NaOH(aq) + H2(g)

Yes, yes,,, the "bloop" noise when ignited!

An ebike battery caused a $300K to a townhouse in Kitchener, Ontario

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/it-can-basically-light-your-hou...

My ebike company (Royal Dutch Gazelle) sent out an email to all customers a couple days ago linking to a blog about their battery safety. Here is the link for anyone interested:
https://www.gazellebikes.com/en-us/blog/ebike-battery-safety...

Is being heaped on e-bike batteries but it's important to consider the facts. Most of these fires involve misuse or inferior grade products.

By comparison, how many fires occur from smoking in bed, children playing with matches or other preventable sources involving human ignorance?

Yes, e-bike batteries can be dangerous but not overly so if they are treated properly.

More needs to be done to educate e-bike owners on how to safely handle these batteries. They also need some form of certification to be legally sold.

Another New York City fire caused by an e-bike:

https://abc7ny.com/nyc-bronx-fire-lithium-ion-battery/129754...

This is from another TV station, with more information about a fire in Richmond Hill, NY, posted above.

https://abc7ny.com/fire-ebike-store-queens-richmond-hill/129...

This is another e-bike fire in Astoria, Queens, New York where two kids died:

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/fdny-child-young-adult-...

Lithium battery explodes in London house:

https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/2023/may/brigade-shares-...

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/05/19/escooter-fire-ki...

Another e-bike fire in London:

https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/safety/lithium-batteries/sofi...

A fire caused after midnight by an e-bike repair shop killed four people in Chinatown, Manhattan. The building was a 6-story railroad flat tenement with the e-bike repair shop on the first floor.

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/video/deadly-fire-breaks-out...