Has your Ford F-150, Honda Civic, Chevy/GMC SUV, or any other combustion-powered vehicle randomly burst into flames when you left it parked in your garage for the night, risking setting your whole house ablaze?
No? Well, that’s because it’s not a car with a lithium-ion battery, as those batteries can ignite in such an unexpected manner. Such is what the owner of a 2019 Jaguar I-Pace named Gonzalo Salazar found out in June of 2022, when he plugged his car, which he had bought new in 2020, in for the night, then unplugged it and left to run some errands.
Here’s what he says happened: “On June 16, I plugged the car in before going to bed. In the morning of June 17, I woke up and unplugged the car. Later that morning, I set out to run some errands. I drove about 12 miles that morning before returning back home and parking the car back in the garage, leaving the garage door open.”
Continuing, he described suddenly realizing what was happening, saying, “As I was doing things at home, I heard pops coming from the garage. I decided to go see where the sounds were coming from, and upon walking into the garage, I faced a thick wall of smoke. My thought immediately was, ‘When there is smoke there is fire,’ and I need to get the car out of the house garage.”
Fortunately, he was able to get the car out of the garage and onto the street, so though the fire ended up burning his car to a crisp, his home and all inside it was safe. Here’s what he describes as happening next: “I went back to the house to get my phone and also noticed that all the smoke in the garage now had filled my entire house because the A/C unit is right next to the garage door. While I was trying to ventilate my house from the smoke I called Jaguar roadside assistance to have them come get the car.”
Concluding the story, he said, “When I ended the conversation with them there were more pops, but this time it was followed by fire from under the car. I then called 911 to come help with the situation. But this was not a slow burn, once the fire started there were multiple pops, and the car was just engulfed in flames rapidly.”
That was the fourth random fire of the Jaguar I-Pace, so though the unprovoked fires aren’t super common (there are about 50,000 I-Pace Jaguars on the road), it is somewhat odd that they keep happening. Yet worse for the EV industry is that the issue isn’t a new one. The same thing happened to the Chevy Bolt EV, as Electrek reported.
The fire issue is also a problem because once the lithium fires get started, they’re near impossible to put out, as they burn quite hot, so hot that reignition is often a major issue. So, if you have an EV, maybe park it in the driveway rather than right next to your house, particularly if you’re sleeping. Though this appears to be a rare issue, it’s still one worth thinking about given the unexpected and dangerous nature of the fires.
Image credit: Twitter screengrab
SOURCE https://theamericantribune.com/