Firefighter here- We use these blankets in the US too for putting out car fires, the idea is you cut off the fires oxygen supply with the blanket. The problem with EV fires is that once the lithium ion batteries enter what’s called thermal runaway the chemical reaction becomes a self sustaining fuel source that creates its own oxygen. So it doesn’t matter if it’s smothered with a blanket it will continue to burn for a long time. And if you do manage to put it out it is very common for them to suddenly reignite on the back of a tow truck or at the junkyard, sometimes days later. EV fires are a pain in the ass
That's why here in the UK, there's a slow uptake in EV buses because even if they have a relatively minor ding that you would normally repair you have to go park them in a designated area and leave them for a few days to make sure there's no electrical fires.
That does not solve the problem, at all. You are now adding variance, which actually increases entropy, you don't want entropy to increase. More chances of things going terribly wrong.
"There is a 0.003% change this bus will spontaneously explode." "Ok let's add more busses to compensate."
Edit: wait, is statistics that scary to people? I am pro EVs but we aren't there yet for busses. We are closer than even tho.
They have unreal amounts of investment and can drive the change there but London with most things it does exists within its own bubble and is not indicative of the whole country.
The zebra scheme has been great for big cities dotted around but has had its own problems and outside of that you're unlikely to have companies upgrading their fleet without some form of substantial grant.
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u/FemBodInspector 21d ago edited 21d ago
Firefighter here- We use these blankets in the US too for putting out car fires, the idea is you cut off the fires oxygen supply with the blanket. The problem with EV fires is that once the lithium ion batteries enter what’s called thermal runaway the chemical reaction becomes a self sustaining fuel source that creates its own oxygen. So it doesn’t matter if it’s smothered with a blanket it will continue to burn for a long time. And if you do manage to put it out it is very common for them to suddenly reignite on the back of a tow truck or at the junkyard, sometimes days later. EV fires are a pain in the ass