Tesla Inc (TSLA)

[boston745]

BYD Showroom Burns to the Ground After One Electric Car Bursts Into Flames

However, one car brand recorded more EV fires than others, at least judging by the number of fire reports over the past years. I'm talking about BYD, Tesla's main rival, partner, and one of the biggest Li-ion battery manufacturers. Many such fires happened in 2021 and 2022, and the carmaker appeared to have solved its quality problems in the past years. However, another fire erupted on Thursday in a BYD showroom in Fuzhou, the capital of the Chinese province Fujian.

According to the Fuzhou Fire Department, the fire started from an electric vehicle parked inside the showroom. A video shared on Chinese social media showed a massive fire engulfing the showroom. Fortunately, nobody was injured during the incident, although 29 firefighters with seven fire trucks fought the blaze for almost an hour. Judging by a video showing the charred remains of the showroom, the fight was unsuccessful. The entire showroom building was burnt to the ground, together with the vehicles inside.

First off notice how there is no claim of arson when BYD's vehicles spontaneously combusted in its showroom while that is common cover story for when Teslas spontaneously combust. Secondly id be curious to compare BYD's fire rate to that of Teslas.
Anyways, BYD EV spontaneously caught fire, maybe more than 1(?), and obviously burned several others with it. This led to the entire showroom burning up. This was similar to a 2017 event for Tesla in Sweden where arson was claimed but never proven. Obviously the extent of the damage for BYD was way worse.


https://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/byd-showroom-burns-to-the-ground-after-one-electric-car-bursts-into-flames-234010_1.jpeg

Electric vehicles have a bad reputation when it comes to vehicle fires despite the fact they are far less likely to catch fire than gas-powered vehicles. Statistics revealed that EV fires are about ten times fewer than those affecting combustion vehicles. Bizarrely, hybrid cars are the most likely to catch fire, even when compared to purely ICE cars.

This paragraph claims that EV's are less likely to catch fire than ICE vehicles except ive seen statistics that show them more likely to when you actually compare the number of EVs that caught fire to the number registered vs ICE caught fire & registered. That said, you'll notice that hybrids are the most likely to catch fire which the author thinks is bizarre. I'll offer an explanation. There are sooo many more hyrbids on the roads than EVs and alot older than EVs. Thus if there were as many EVs that are as old as hybrids, than there would be far more EV fires than ICE and maybe even hybrids. This is because EVs have a more significant electrical system for EM radiation to cause fires as well as larger battery pack working at higher voltages that can lead to greater dendrite growth. Greater dendrite growth equates to more battery cells experiencing thermal runaway and thus more spontaneous EV fires.

So far thats 1 spontaneous BYD EV fire, 1 out of control Tesla, & 1 Boeing engine fire for yesterday all close proximity to the ring of fire

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/byd-showroom-burns-to-the-ground-after-one-electric-car-bursts-into-flames-234010.html

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How does EMF cause lithium batteries to experience thermal runaway and thus spontaneously combust? One of two main ways:

#1 - Overcharge/Discharge

With various impressed external magnetic field intensities an effect was noticed on the charge and discharge curves as well as the charge and mass concentrations within the batteries. With the two-dimensional model starting from 0mT and going to 1mT had the effect of discharging the battery faster and charging the battery faster. With the two-dimensional model starting from 1mT and going to -1mT had the effect of charging the battery faster. In either case an effect on the various characteristics of the battery were studied. With the experiments conducted on the two types of batteries the effect was more profound than subtle. Discharge times were twice as fast and charge times were equally
affected. With the smaller batteries they all generally charged faster under the presence of a magnetic field due to more uniform penetration. In the presence of the field they also discharged faster. The larger batteries would not see the same uniform penetration because only a small area of the battery sees the center of the coil it is placed on

In this dissertation, they found that external magnetic fields significantly increased charge and discharge rates in individual lithium battery cells; like shown in the following image. They also found that smaller batteries were impacted to a greater degree than larger ones. This is likely a reason Tesla is switching to larger battery cells in addition to employing magnetic attenuating honeycomb sandwich battery pack.

Thermal Runaway of Lithium-Ion Batteries Triggered by Electromagnetic Interference
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9025761

https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0378775320302172-fx1_lrg.jpg

#2 - Stimulation of Dendrite Growth

Thermoelectric current causes asymmetric growth pattern of dendrites.

thermoelectromagnetic convection occurs in the vicinity of the solid-liquid interface, and vortices are generated between dendritic arms. It is shown that the thermoelectromagnetic convection has a major influence on dendritic morphology.

Quote Sources:

#1:https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/1743

#2:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001793101930225X