OT Chevy Bolt owners, what’s your strategy RE: fire risk?

[NHAero]

We park ours outside, no garage, and limit charging to 90% and don’t go below 70 miles remaining range, as GM suggests. How much should we worry? Ten fires out of 140,000 vehicles may actually be a lower fire risk than many ICE vehicles.

Are you doing anything more?

[robt57]

We had already been doing max and min on our new 2022. Thinking being make batteries last longest time. Now it will get new batteries so reason is for safety.. Tried 75% max initially, now 80% max, and shoot for 20% lowest state.

I was also about to up our 16 amp level 2 to 32 amp. Decided faster not better and am getting it done 2 charges a week at 16amp by morning easily for wifes commute use.

The 16 amp was already here and charging my pacifica PHEVbefore Bolt arrived.

[Smitty2k1]

I work at the U.S. DOT at NHTSA in vehicle safety. Some of my work involves electric vehicle safety and battery testing.

Please follow whatever guidance the manufacturer puts out any any subsequent guidance released by NHTSA or GM. Part of what makes this a big deal is there are no real warning signs to the vehicle owner that your battery may be at risk.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[NHAero]

Thanks for posting.

I have been following those recommendations (and in essence, was following them beforehand for battery life reasons.) So far I haven't seen a 2021 car fire.

Is it accurate, what I've read on some discussions online, that ICE car fires are actually statistically more common? I recognize that an EV lithium battery fire is a total loss and many ICE fires don't necessarily end up that way.

Originally Posted by Smitty2k1

I work at the U.S. DOT at NHTSA in vehicle safety. Some of my work involves electric vehicle safety and battery testing.

Please follow whatever guidance the manufacturer puts out any any subsequent guidance released by NHTSA or GM. Part of what makes this a big deal is there are no real warning signs to the vehicle owner that your battery may be at risk.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[Smitty2k1]

Originally Posted by NHAero

Thanks for posting.



I have been following those recommendations (and in essence, was following them beforehand for battery life reasons.) So far I haven't seen a 2021 car fire.



Is it accurate, what I've read on some discussions online, that ICE car fires are actually statistically more common? I recognize that an EV lithium battery fire is a total loss and many ICE fires don't necessarily end up that way.

Yes, we believe ICE fires are more statistically common when accounting for exposure (i.e. number and age of vehicles). I don't think we have any official publication on the matter, but that's the generally consensus, so, uh, don't quote me on that. I am certainly no official spokesperson. At NHTSA we really pride ourselves on our data so we should probably try to get something official out.

The issue with the EV fires is they burn forever and are near impossible to put out. Also it's rare (impossible?) for an ICE to catch on fire when sitting turned off, while EVs can. In the case of serious crashes with damage to the fuel tank or battery, either vehicle type can catch fire. We have post-crash safety standards for both. FMVSS Nos. 301 and 305.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[jm714]

Originally Posted by Smitty2k1

I work at the U.S. DOT at NHTSA in vehicle safety. Some of my work involves electric vehicle safety and battery testing.

Please follow whatever guidance the manufacturer puts out any any subsequent guidance released by NHTSA or GM. Part of what makes this a big deal is there are no real warning signs to the vehicle owner that your battery may be at risk.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Crap! I guess I better start following the guidelines.

[goonster]

Originally Posted by Smitty2k1

Also it's rare (impossible?) for an ICE to catch on fire when sitting turned off, while EVs can.

There's the "hot cat over dry leaves" scenario, but perhaps that's considered external, and not a vehicle malfunction . . .

[benb]

This is probably a very small issue compared to the following recent issues as well:

- Takata faulty airbags
- Runaway acceleration issues

GM seems to have caught this early on and done the right thing.

Personally I've seen quite a few towering infernos from ICE vehicles that have caught on fire, a few so severe you saw them 5-10 miles down the road and wondered if the USAF had used the highway for target practice. Jeep Wrangler, Chevy Van, Audi TT, Mitsubishi 3000GT, Honda CR-V, all vehicles I've seen on fire so bad the fire department just tried to contain the damage as everything but the block and the chassis burned away. I don't drive around thinking my ICE car can't start on fire.

[bicycletricycle]

cars randomly catching houses on fire is.......... not great.

are other EV's doing this? isn't that an LG drive train also found in KIA's?

[AngryScientist]

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


yikes

[bicycletricycle]

i am not disagreeing with you, ICE cars catch on fire. They seem to catch on fire when being used/driven/started/crashed/etc though. Usually someone is around using the thing when it goes up in flames.

This seems different. ICE cars rarely catch on fire in your garage and burn your house down while you are sleeping.

Originally Posted by benb

This is probably a very small issue compared to the following recent issues as well:

- Takata faulty airbags
- Runaway acceleration issues

GM seems to have caught this early on and done the right thing.

Personally I've seen quite a few towering infernos from ICE vehicles that have caught on fire, a few so severe you saw them 5-10 miles down the road and wondered if the USAF had used the highway for target practice. Jeep Wrangler, Chevy Van, Audi TT, Mitsubishi 3000GT, Honda CR-V, all vehicles I've seen on fire so bad the fire department just tried to contain the damage as everything but the block and the chassis burned away. I don't drive around thinking my ICE car can't start on fire.

[rwsaunders]

I had an iPad battery swell to the point of expanding the case and when I stopped at the Apple Store to inquire what to do, they took the unit and placed it in their fireproof vault in the back of the store. Not common, but not unknown from what I’ve read, but I can’t imagine worrying about my car battery doing the same thing and catching on fire.

The Bolt is costing GM $1.3B to repair and I wonder how long they are willing to keep this up? LG batteries btw.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/ca...sk/8217053002/

[MikeD]

They'd better figure out how to do proper QC on these batteries. Wonder how much of this was preventable? I don't remember a full recall of every model built since the Ford Pinto, and that was an easy fix. If they're talking about cars going fully electric and replacing gas engines, these batteries aren't safe enough. Right now only a small fraction of cars sold are electric. We need better, safer batteries. I hope the solid state battery comes to fruition.

[benb]

140K vehicles in this recall is tiny compared to a whole bunch of other recalls in the last 20 years. There have been plenty of recalls of > 1M cars if I recall correctly.

This is a pretty severe issue but it also doesn't make the car explode.. the fire takes a while to get going. So it might not be as severe as some of the other issues.

I'd much rather deal with this than an airbag which could kill a passenger or a brake system failure or runaway drive by wire throttle issues.

[benb]

Originally Posted by bicycletricycle

i am not disagreeing with you, ICE cars catch on fire. They seem to catch on fire when being used/driven/started/crashed/etc though. Usually someone is around using the thing when it goes up in flames.

This seems different. ICE cars rarely catch on fire in your garage and burn your house down while you are sleeping.

You're likely right.

But there are lots of ways for a car to kill you.

I have yet to own an EV, but this kind of stuff makes my detached garage look a little better. One of these fires would take out my garage but not the house, especially considering I live close to the fire station.

I hate my detached garage when it's super cold or super hot and I want to work on bikes or just about any other "workshop" task, but in terms of charging an EV I guess it's an advantage, other than that the electrical work will be vastly more expensive to install a charge because I'll need the electrical trench dug up and new wires run.

I also question how much "GM doesn't really care about EVs" is part of this. The Bolt is pretty good but it still feels like GM doesn't really care and just built it to get a start and to game their emissions credits and fleet fuel economy. These companies just don't have the same skin in the game as a company that only makes EVs.