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Can an electric car explode when it crashes?
I know that EVs store a lot of energy in their batteries. Could this cause an electric car to explode if it crashes?
Alex Healey · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
Worryingly, yes. If an EV battery catches on fire, it has the potential to release hazardous gasses which could cause an explosion.
Fortunately, though, an EV is unlikely to explode on impact, if that’s what you are imagining.
Before we explain why, here’s the relevant background info:
- An electric car battery is made up of hundreds of individual lithium-ion cells.
- When fully charged, these cells contain a huge amount of energy.
- If the battery is damaged following a wreck it will probably catch on fire.
Now, by itself, a battery fire is unlikely to cause an explosion, but if you attempt to extinguish it with water, you could create hazardous vapors.
It is these vapors that are explosive, and the risk of explosion is high if the fire continues to burn nearby. Consequently, the only way to safely distinguish an EV engine fire is to use special materials, or so much water the fire has zero chance of reigniting.
This is proving to be a real concern for firefighters, as putting out a single electric car fire takes a lot of resources, and many smaller departments are not equipped to deal with the threat.
Long-term, electric cars are probably going to move to solid-state batteries (SSB), rather than lithium ion ones, which have the potential to hold more energy and are not prone to the same thermal fires, but they are several years away from being commercially scalable.
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