Chevy Volt burned in an earlier Connecticut fire. The Volt was determined to not be the cause of that fire.
Fire officials continue to pore over the site of a house fire in suburban Mooresville, NC to determine if the blaze, which started in the garage, was caused by an electric vehicle charging station, the electric car that it was charging, or some other source of ignition. Duke Energy, the utility which installed the Siemens built charger, tried to reassure customers about the safety of that unit, as fire officials made it clear that the fire might have had nothing to do with the EV, a Chevy Volt, or the charging station.
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When he’s not busy doing custom machine embroidery, Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth and contributes to The Truth About Cars and Left Lane News
There are many reasons to hate the Volt and what it represents. This is not one of them. If the charger was the source of the fire then it is due to it being a faulty charger, not because it is a hazard inherent to electric vehicles. Battery chargers are ubiquitous nowadays in both homes and businesses. And just as with any appliance there are certain maintenance requirements. But chargers in general are fairly safe devices that do not cause fires in businesses and homes.
Batteries and battery chargers are not new, “risky” technology that we have little understanding of.
Batteries and battery chargers may not be new technology in of themselves, but large Lithium-Ion battery packs are, at least to the great masses.
They are not like lead-acid car batteries of super-sized D-cells. They are fickle, very vulnerable to overcharging current or voltage and when they ignite they burn very hot, very fierce are are very difficult to extinguish.
When shorted they can pull huge currents, overheat and ignite.
Now, I’m not a luddite and I happen to think they are a really useful technology when deployed in the right role. I use them because they have great power density and can be charged fairly quickly.
Stuffing a huge pack of them in a car subject to abuse and collision is not a good use.
When used by a populace that doesn’t see any difference between a lemon with a nail and a coin stuffed in it and a a high tech foil bag that the Lithium-Ion batteries are is not a good use.
I have read that all propositions, necessary or contingent of yesterday, today; of the future have truth values. Knowledge of these truth values nor the truth values per se are causal and do not entail determinism; however, many do believe that if a future contingent has a truth value today, it is no longer contingent but necessary. What say you?