A local apartment fire was started by a Lithium-battery failure on an e-scooter that was being charged. A defect led to a thermal runaway and the battery caught fire. Fortunately, the apartment had an automated sprinkler system that quickly extinguished the fire – but there was a lot of water damage.

Curious about battery fires, I went looking for other coverage of the topic.

This story – Is It Safe to Park Your EV in the Garage? (autoweek.com) – has some interesting quotes that related to how our perceptions are shaped by the media coverage.

“‘If it bleeds it leads,’ is how reporting on EVs works,” says Sam Fiorani, vice president of Global Vehicle Forecasting for AutoForecast Solutions.

“It doesn’t matter if ICE vehicles catch fire more often, or even as often as EVs. The pictures are more spectacular, and it plays on the public’s fear of the unknown. Showcasing another ICE vehicle fire does nothing for ratings or readership, but place one photo or video of a Tesla burning up and watch the clicks roll in.”

The data suggest ICE vehicles catch fire at a higher rate than EVs, agrees Mike Austin, senior research analyst on electric vehicles for Guidehouse, and a former editor for Car and Driver. But EV fires just happen to be, er, more explosive.

Good example of how the media’s choices are used to influence our perspectives. Humorously, the story is illustrated with a photo of four burned EVs – but which were burned due to arson!

The story explained that many EVs and other products use Nickel-based rechargeable battery technologies, which generate their own oxygen supply during combustion. Some new EVs have moved to new technologies (notably LFP) which does not contain Nickel-cobalt or magnesium or aluminum battery tech. Future solid-state batteries will be far less likely to catch fire, as well.