EV batteries

[krustywantout]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/success/electric-car-vehicle-battery-fires/index.html

I understand that articles like this are there to inform and help people better understand the issues but the articles title is alarmist and the fact they mention gasoline cars can catch fire towards the end of the article, seems to mislead the reader. The number of EV cars that actually catch fire is very low. Maybe I'm overreacting but I feel that the article didn't need to be written since there isn't that much of a risk.

[nth256]

I mean, CNN doesn't have Trump to bash anymore, so they need something to get riled up over.

[krustywantout]

They will bash him even after he's dead. He's left them with enough material to last them forever.

[spacekraken]

Agreed-kind of overstates the risk. EVs have a far far lower fire rate than gas cars (as a percentage, and of course as a total since ~1% of cars in the US are electric).

Apparently there are ~171K highway fires in a year in the US... and wikipedia has a article detailing every recent EV fire (it's a handful a year at most). Batteries need care sure, but gas is pretty flammable haha.

The recalls thing is also a bit misleading... My friend's Impreza had several major engine recalls in one year that listed "potential engine failure" but that's not the same as saying the car exploded on the side of the road. (in fact, taking it to have said recalls notwithstanding, it ran excellently)