News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're Built. Parent comment

Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by blinkingled on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @07:50AM (#16315910)
Right, but the batteries are more vulnerable to starting a fire in collisions than gasoline. I think there were cases of Tesla car batteries starting fire on impact.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by SmellyGeekBoy on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @09:31AM (#16316384)
I hate to be "that guy" but... Do you have a citation for that, by any chance?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by ce4 on Thursday February 08, 2018 @01:50AM (#16330654)
Here's footage of the burning Rimac Concept One when Grand Tour's Hammond crashed it [1].

A Tesla burned down after a crash in Austria last year [2]

1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T4sDy-zdV2o

2: https://www.golem.de/news/elektroauto-tesla-model-s-brennt-a...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by inferiorhuman on Thursday February 08, 2018 @04:15PM (#16335657)
In what way is that more vulnerable to fire than a gasoline powered car in a wreck? Cars catch on fire all the time.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by rhinoceraptor on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @09:59AM (#16316572)
AFAIK, Teslas just use huge arrays of 18650s. And it's well known that lithium cells can catch fire if they are crushed or pierced.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by inferiorhuman on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @01:11AM (#16322566)
> AFAIK, Teslas just use huge arrays of 18650s. And it's well known that lithium cells can catch fire if they are crushed or pierced.

Ah. So it's like gasoline then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJdZD8POi8

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by rhinoceraptor on Thursday February 08, 2018 @02:39PM (#16334927)
Gasoline still requires an ignition source to catch fire. Lithium cells can spontaneously ignite when they experience physical damage.

I'm not saying electric cars are safer or more dangerous in the event of a crash (because I don't know the answer to that), just that batteries can and will catch fire.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by blinkingled on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @11:17AM (#16317203)
No, but it's fairly common knowledge that li-ion batteries are at fire risk on overheating and collision/impact(ref: Tesla fires). That's not to say Tesla didn't firewall the car enough to prevent fires from reaching in the cabin but it's still not a good idea to be locked in there when batteries are burning below.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Company That Tears Cars Apart to Find Out How They're B... by inferiorhuman on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @01:10AM (#16322563)
It's pretty well known that gasoline is a fire risk... that's kind of how ICE engines work. Lithium-ion batteries come in a variety of different chemistries and some, e.g. LiFePo4, are not much of a fire risk at all.

So, yes, if you puncture the lithium cells you may put yourself at risk. You're also at risk if you puncture a gasoline tank (worse if you're talking something like hydrogen).

Note: Tesla does not, AFAIK, use LiFePo4 cells. Additionally one of the big challenges is that LiFePo4 cells are less energy dense than other lithium chemistries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMARDvMz62A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p21iZVFHEZk

[ Parent | on HN ]