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Figure 2. The growth in electric passenger cars in Europe and the Nordic countries [3] 1.1.1 Fire Incidents
Many incidents involving EVs have attracted considerable media attention and some of these incidents are summarized in previous reports [6, 7] covering incidents from 2010-2019. In media, Tesla cars is the most paraphrased with regard to fire incidents in EVs and according to statistics provided by Tesla themselves there has been approximately one Tesla vehicle fire for every 280 million km travelled, which means that Tesla fires are roughly 9 times less probable than car fires in general referring to US statistical data [8]. A small decrease in fire incidents per km travelled for Tesla cars is noted comparing the two reports covering 2012-2018 and 2012-2019, respectively [8]. Note that age of the vehicle fleet is not accounted for in the comparison between EVs and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs).
In Sweden, based on rescue operation reports database, there were 14 fires in electric passenger cars between 2018-2019, whereof 4 during driving and 2 during charging (arson fires are excluded). In total 95 fires were identified for electric means of transport, but the majority concerned e.g. bicycles, scooters and hoverboards. Note that it is the responsibility of the rescue officer to write in text that an EV was involved, why the statistics might not be complete [9]. For comparison, based on rescue operation reports database in Norway, there were 45 fires in battery electric passenger cars (82 fires in BEVs) between 2016-2018 [10]. However, only in one case of the car fires it was noted that the traction battery was involved in the fire. Between 2016 and Q1 2020 the number of plug-in EVs have increased from 135 000 to 410 000 in Norway [11] and from 30 000 to 120 000 in Sweden [12]. Based on these sources a battery electric passenger car fire in Norway is about five times less probable than a conventional car fire, while in Sweden an EV fire is about twenty times less probable than a conventional vehicle fire. As mentioned, the statistics might not be complete, but even if some smaller fire incidents are not covered one can conclude that fires including or starting in the traction battery are rare and exceptional.
This work by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is, except where otherwise noted, licensed under CC BY
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