Thread by @colinwalker79

.@AllisonPearson has shared her thoughts on the #ElectricVehicle transition in today's @Telegraph

Been a while since I've seen an article with quite so many inaccuracies and unevidenced claims

So, here's a not-so-little thread to debunk some of the things that have been said

The main premise of the article is that EVs have 'an unfortunate tendancy to burst in to flame'

However, no actual data is provided to back this assertion up. That's because the data that's out there emphatically disproves it

First up, data from the Swedish Civil Contigencies Agency "has shown that EVs are 20 times less likely to catch fire than petrol and diesel cars"

thedriven.io/2023/05/16/pet…

Secondly, data from the US' National Transport Safety Board shows that purely battery powered vehicles are the least likely to catch fire

There are 25.1 fires per 100,000 EV sales

The figure for petrol/diesel is 1,529 - over 60 times higher

insideevs.com/news/561549/st…

Thirdly, the Australian Government's EV FireSafe found that 0.0012% of EVs caught fire between 2010 and 2023

This compares to 0.1% for diesel and petrol cars - making them 80 times more likely to catch fire than EVs

evfiresafe.com/ev-fire-faqs

The author attempts to back up her argument by citing a couple of cargo ships that recently went up in flames, "apparently because of battery electric vehicles"

But she contradicts herself by quoting the International Union of Marine Insurance...

"To date, no fire onboard a roro or Pure Car and Truck Carrier (PCTC) has been proven to have been caused by a factory-new EV"

In fact, the IUMI also went on to say...

“IUMI understands that the transportation of EVs raises certain risks that are different to those involved in carrying internal combustion engine vehicles but research suggests that the risks are not heightened or more dangerous"

thedriven.io/2023/08/14/sor…

The fire aboard the Freemantle Highway cargo ships, cited by the authorr, is a good example of the way misinformation abounds

The moment the fire happened, many sources were incredibly quick to claim that the cause was the EVs being carried aboard

But executives from the salvage company working on the wreck have poured cold water on this speculation

They noted that the fire occured on decks in which no EVs were being carried - in fact, all the EVs on the ship's lower decks remain in good condition

automotivelogistics.media/electric-vehic…

The author then cites the recent fire at Luton Airport - again this incident saw many people quickly point the finger at EVs

But this was debunked by the Head of Bedfordshire Fire Service, who said the fire started with a diesel vehicle

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

The author attempts to refute this by repeating a claim that a photo being circulated of the alleged vehicle that started the fire show it was a hybrid Range Rover

Main flaw here is we know what the the car's number plate was - E10 EFL

https://twitter.com/andysoullinux/status/1712232395049422942

A quick search on the DVLA's database shows that its a V6 diesel 2014 Range Rover Sport

In 2014, no hybrid Range Rovers existed

So no, the fire at Luton Airport is not evidence that EVs are a fire hazard

The author then resorts to looking at fires in things other than EVs - like fairy lights, e-bikes and e-scooters

The intention is to suggest that because fires happen in other things with lithium-ion batteries then EVs, with their lithium-ion batteries, must be dangerous

Couple of flaws here

The obvious one is that this is an argument for all of us, the author included, to rapidly ditch the laptops and smartphones on which we all rely to avoid self immolation

I don't see that happening any time soon

Secondly, the author doesn't cite the main reason why we've seen a spate of ebike and escooter fires in the UK

The conversion kits that many people use to turn their bikes into ebikes are not regulated

Meaning there's some really dodgy, cheap kits doing the rounds

Poor kits, and using the wrong chargers bought online, are behind a lot of these fires

In fact London Fire Brigade says 40% of ebike fires are down to unregulated conversion kits

Suffice to say, EVs are A LOT better regulated

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

The author goes on to make some non-fire related claims about EVs

She claims that EV drivers "end up calling breakdown services for run-down batteries"

Well not really. The AA has reported a 70% drop in the proportion of electric vehicles running out of charge over the last few years

A few years ago 'out of charge' EV breakdowns were 8% of all EV breakdowns, in May this year that figure dropped below 2%

theaa.com/about-us/newsr…

And its not as if running out of juice is a problem confined to EV drivers

There's evidence to suggest that over 800,000 petrol & diesel cars a year were breaking down because they'd run out of fuel

abbeyautoline.co.uk/knowledge-hub/…

She also claims that 'the batteries only last about 15 years and cost thousands to replace'

Since the average life of a car is 14 years, I'm don't think this is quite the awful thing she thinks it is

In fact it confirms something that car manufacturers are seeing - the batteries in EVs are outlasting the cars

For example Nissan says its Leaf batteries will outlast the car by 10-12 years

electrek.co/2019/05/24/nis…

We've got Teslas on UK roads that have clocked over 300,000 miles

thisismoney.co.uk/money/electric…

Backing that up is a survey carried out by @WhichUK of EV owners, which found that new EVs are retaining 98% of their range

Even the oldest EVs are only seeing a 9% drop in battery capacity

which.co.uk/news/article/t…

There is one assertion with which I do agree - on the very rare occasion that an EV does catch on fire, it does appear to be very difficult to put out

Clearly more needs to be done to address this challenge. I'm off to chat with my firefighter sister to find out more