Safety / Legal

Detection and alert Emergency responders lack information and methods to monitor pack conditions* and thermal runaway hazards.

First Response

Second Response

Fire suppression and pack cooling

Tow

Fighting EV fires can require up to 40x more water than conventional vehicle fires and take over 24 hours due to reignitions.

Stranded energy can lead to battery fire reignitions which can occur anywhere, including on the tow bed.

*Temperature, SOC, voltage, gas, etc.

Storage Damaged EVs are space inefficient to store. Recommendations call for a 50-ft radius around the damaged EV in tow yards and, if possible, full submersion in water. Reignition hazards can remain even weeks later. (Figure adapted from the Tran 2021 conference presentation)

Fully submerging a damaged BMW EV for transport in the Netherlands

Industry: Safety Source: NTSB Report, CTIP, BatteryBits (Article 1, Article 2)

Volta Foundation

Extracted from the PDF; charts and images may read imperfectly.