The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[OakesCS]

Pu239 and U235 arent particularly volatile but they can still make a big boom.

Lithium battery packs occupy a lot of volume and area within an EV and consequently terminal damage can be incurred from below or any side, e.g. collision from front, back or side; bottoming out on a speed bump; running over a curb; or damage from road junk can compromise a battery casing. From that point, simply running thru a puddle can cause ignition but it wont necessarily happen immediately - thus the cases where EVs have ignited while parked. With a Li fire, spraying water on the fire makes it worse and a CO2 extinguisher wont necessarily have any effect. All the necessary fuel components for the fire are within the battery. An Li battery pack could be 10 m underwater and still burn. That wont happen with an ICE vehicle.

I dont think an EV is any worse or better than an ICE vehicle wrt to ignition hazards for normal road driving but there is a different set of hazards to which most people are clueless. Little driving faux pas that some people might blow off for an ICE vehicle could be terminal to an EV. I dont think Jeep will ever make a serious off-road EV.