One of the reasons I won't consider an EV for many years to come is the chance of a fire occurring at my house during the middle of the night.

 

That's very unlikely. Your house would probably be hit by a meteor before an EV burned your house down

 

Haven't quite a few EV's caught on fire from being left on the charger?

 

There are millions of Teslas sold. Fires are pretty RARE and none have been due to being left on the charger. Complete fabrication.

 

Since 2014 there were 4 fires total. There are millions of EV's on the road being plugged in everyday. I would again say that your house will burn down by a meteor sooner than an EV. Either that or @Och will set your house on fire and blame it on an EV

 

You may as well not have any electric appliances in your house if you're afraid of this.

 

if these appliances contained a large amount of chemicals that can lead to a runaway reaction that cant be extinguished by conventional means, then yes

 

More people burn down their houses cooking, overloading a surge protector, or forgetting to turn off a toaster oven. My grandmothers Chevy Nova burned down due to a small gasoline leak that was imperceptible. With all the millions of EV's on the road, there's only been a few fires linked to batteries since 2014. When is the grasping for straws going to end?

 

"only" 4 fires since 2014 (good ol reliable wikipedia), not really https://www.tesla-fire.com/ and this isnt even all EVs and only the ones an article was written for. Theres been far more than 4 different articles posted about EV fires in this forum alone in the past year.

your example of a ICE leaking and burning down is one made in the 1960s-70s?

 

I love how you guys embrace fake unverified news

 

all the links are there and those 4 incidents according to wiki (2012, 2013, 2013, 2013) and youre saying NONE have happened since then? Sounds like that wiki entry was created in Feb 2014 and has never has been updated. There is a big difference between "as of" and "since" GM confirmed there were 16 Bolts that caught fire, prompting a recall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-i...fire_incidents

 

The specific situation in question was,, how many fires for EVs that started when just plugging it in. For Tesla, it would probably be less than 4 given every Tesla news is magnified by a thousand.

For other EVs, there was a Bolt recall with this specific issue. Of course ICEs also tend to have a risk of fire in a garage as the Kias were also recalled.

 

Like I said before, its whatever fits their worldview must be true.

I actually personally know someone who's ICE car started a fire parked in his garage and burned his house down. These things can and do happen but they are extraordinarily rare.

I would park an EV in my garage and charge it without fear.

 

Go do some research and you'll find that there are far more ICE fires as a percentage than EV fires. Its not even close. EV fires are more difficult to control right now but if an ICE catches fire, I doubt the fire fighters would have enough time to get to my house before my house burns down anyway. I haven't ever heard of a Tesla Powerwall burning down a house either and they've installed a bunch of those across the nation too. Such a small risk...way riskier just driving to work.

 

Let's put this in the perspective, with ICE cars only about 1% of fires originate at the gas tank. Majority of fires are either electrical short, or something physically being dragged - something that can happen to EVs as well. Small percentage are also arsons and hot oil/gas leaking onto hot exhaust.

When it comes to EVs, their battery chemistry is premixed for explosion akin to dynamite, and battery explosions are a real concern. They have already suspended the sales for the Chevy EV due to battery fires, and as manufacturers try to squeeze more and more energy into the batteries, the fire risk keeps increasing. Tesla's new 4680 batteries that they have been touting for years have not entered mass production precisely for this reason.

With that being said, the fire risk is minimal and not really a concern. As long as the car is new, well maintained and undamaged, and the charger is working properly, it's just not an issue. The risk somewhat increases as the car gets older, but the same is true for ICEs. A real concern are cheap aftermarket and remanufactured Li-Cnsm batteries. These are dangerous in electronic devices, and especially dangerous in huge EV battery packs. While cheap aftermarket Prius batteries simply don't hold the charge as well as the original battery, and the worst that can happen is they leak and corrode everything around them, the risk of explosion of with a cheap Lithium battery is a huge concern.