Tesla Inc (TSLA)

[boston745]

Mercedes EV fire causes power outage, hospitalizations with 140 cars damaged

You can watch the car explode in the links. The damage done sounds something like an EV fire on one of those transportation ships that experienced this (Felicity Ace / Fremantle Highway).

The apparent vehicle blaze broke out at 6:15 a.m. Thursday after the car, which appeared to be a white Mercedes EQE sedan, was seen in CCTV footage exploding around two seconds after emitting smoke.

The fire was extinguished after eight hours, but sent a total of 23 people to hospitals, including one firefighter and seven children, as of press time.

The number of damaged cars also increased to 140 on Friday, up from 70 as reported a day ago. Forty of them were burned while around 100 vehicles suffered energy loss and were scorched.

A total of 177 emergency responders, including firefighters, were dispatched to the site.

The Mercedes EQE sedan is reportedly equipped with batteries made by the Ningde, China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL). It was launched in the Korean market in 2022.

“We can't confirm details about the exact model and batteries at the moment,” a spokesperson from Mercedes-Benz Korea told the Korea JoongAng Daily. “We are taking this very seriously and will do our best to collaborate with fire authorities to determine the exact cause.”

Quote Sources:

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-08-02/business/industry/Mercedes-EV-fire-causes-power-outage-hospitalizations-with-140-cars-damaged/2104634
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-08-01/business/industry/Sixteen-injured-after-MercedesBenz-explodes-in-parking-lot/2103770

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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