Electric vehicles catch fire at Rivian's Normal, Illinois plant

[Caribbeans]

Electric vehicles catch fire at Rivian’s Normal plant

25newsnow.com | Mike Smith | Aug. 25, 2024

NORMAL (25News Now) - Normal Fire Department (NPD) crews battled a blaze at the Rivian plant parking lot Saturday night.

NFD spokesperson Matt Swaney said fire crews were called to Rivian’s Normal plant just before 9:45 p.m. for a reported vehicle fire. He said there is an unspecified number of vehicles damaged by the incident.

Witnesses outside the plant said they reportedly saw the fire as early as 9:50 p.m...more
https://www.25newsnow.com/2024/08/25/electric-vehicles-catch-fire-rivians-normal-plant/?outputType=amp

RELATED:

Recently Amazon Delivery Vehicles (Rivian) caught fire too

People need to know that riding around literally sitting on ~70 kWh of stored energy can be extremely dangerous. Of course petrol powered cars catch fire but you usually (almost always) have a few minutes to get away. One rock on the highway can damage the battery slab to the point of ignition. The smoke from a Li-Ion battery is worse too. If you ride in a Battery Car you should know where the emergency exit handles are, because you won't have time to check the manual. We could ask one of these guys in Texas but...

[TommieMommy]

1. OMG 😟 how horrible. I don't want one. Don't trust them

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I just drove past that Rivian plant about 45 minutes ago. The parking lot is hundreds of acres and full of

Amazon vans. Most of their pickups and SUVs are parked out at the State Farm campus. It is the largest manufacturing plant I've ever seen. It's around 3 miles from where I now live, but I didn't see any lingering smoke or anything.

[riversedge]

3. Whow--that is a huge fire. Brave firefighters for sure.

[Wonder Why]

4. As to that Tesla, the driver was drunk and speeding according to the NTSB and both died from blunt force trauma

and burns.

IMHO, Likely, they couldn't get out because they were too drunk and the driver had taken 2 OTC sedating antihistamine medications. The idiot only drove 550 feet from the driveway to the crash.

Here's the NTSB info.

https://montgomerycountypolicereporter.com/ntsb-determines-woodlands-tesla-crash-that-killed-two-was-not-driverless/]

[Think. Again.]

5. Thank goodness gasoline isn't flammable.

Oh, wait,...

[Hermit-The-Prog]

7. OMG, people are sitting on about 400 KWh with full 12-gallon tank of gasoline! Yet the OP is scared of the 70.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. Gasoline and diesel powered vehicles are 29 times more likely to catch fire than an EV

https://www.motortrend.com/features/you-are-wrong-about-ev-fires/

Combustion-Powered Vehicles Are 29 Times More Likely To Catch Fire

According to MSB data, there are nearly 611,000 EVs and hybrids in Sweden as of 2022. With an average of 16 EV and hybrid fires per year, there's a 1 in 38,000 chance of fire. There are a total of roughly 4.4 million gas- and diesel-powered passenger vehicles in Sweden, with an average of 3,384 fires per year, for a 1 in 1,300 chance of fire. That means gas- and diesel-powered passenger vehicles are 29 times more likely to catch fire than EVs and hybrids.

[Think. Again.]

8. Thank you for posting that....

The bottom line is we DON'T HAVE A CHOICE between EVs or ICEs, we simply have to transition away from burning fossil fuels with whatever we have to do that with, as soon as humanly possible.

It isn't a matter of choice, it's a matter of life or death, literally.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. It would help if we didn't try to make EVs that fit the most extreme situations

I don't need one that will haul 5 or six people, all their luggage, and travel 400 miles between charges. Most people don't. Even conversion vehicles using old flooded lead-acid batteries have been capable of handling over 80% of commutes since the '60s.

Check this list:
"Here's Every New Electric Vehicle Model for Sale in the U.S. for 2024"
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/g32463239/new-ev-models-us/


Most look like gasoline-powered cars that have had the engine replaced. It's like the engineers (or marketing departments) never heard of wind resistance. Strangely, the cheapest ones look the most like they were designed from scratch for electric power.