Tesla Inc (TSLA)

[boston745]

'Not in my backyard': EV-phobia spreads across Korea

“I will never buy EVs, and won’t even park my car near EVs,” said Kim Jung-ki, a man in his 50s living in Yongin, Gyeonggi.

Fueled by a recent Mercedes explosion in an underground parking garage in Incheon, Kim joins a growing chorus of potential car buyers in the country fearful of the once-touted vehicle type, a trend that even inspired claims of "EV-phobia" in local headlines.

“EV batteries and charging stations have a high risk of catching fire, which can claim human lives and cause massive damage," Kim added.

The scenario in which the explosion of just one car damaged 140 vehicles in the garage, 40 of which were totally incinerated, has imposed an even greater sense of fear in many across the country, where more than half of the population lives in apartments.

A blazing inferno ignited by a battery

The belief that EVs are more fire-prone crystallizes with the vulnerability of batteries to "thermal runaway," which can raise the power source's temperature to up to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit).

The presence of batteries carries a greater risk of burning nearby objects and causing casualties compared to vehicles with engines powered by gasoline or diesel.

Tesla revealed in its own report that EV fires take eight times longer to be extinguished than fires from petrol-powered cars. EVs also need 110 times more water to completely put out the fire and 2.5 times more personnel.

Property loss from EV fires is also around three times higher.

National Fire Agency said the average financial damage caused by an EV fire amounted to around 23.4 million won ($17,000), while it was only 9.52 million won for internal combustion engine cars.

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-08-08/business/industry/Not-in-my-backyard-EVphobia-spreads-across-Korea/2108924

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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