How to Extinguish a Burning Electric Car

Electric cars catch fire much less frequently than traditional vehicles: out of 100,000 vehicles, only 25 electric ones are involved in fires, compared to over 1,500 petrol/diesel and 3,000 hybrids. When a lithium battery is damaged, it can trigger "thermal runaway", an exothermic autocatalytic reaction that generates flammable gases at extremely high temperatures and affects adjacent cells in a domino effect.

Currently, the only method to extinguish these fires is to use large quantities of water (up to 10,000 litres) to cool the battery pack. The Italian Fire Brigade follows a national directive: they disconnect the high voltage, wait 10 minutes to discharge the capacitors, use thermal cameras to avoid re-ignition, and quarantine the vehicle.

The idea of using cryogenic liquids (at -50°C) to reduce the amount of water is not feasible: high costs, logistical issues, the risk of freezing components, and no certified system. Current regulations require submerging the vehicle in an inert liquid.

Research is ongoing into phase change materials with graphene and thermoresponsive separators, but only at the laboratory level. LFP Blade batteries (like those from BYD) do not suffer from thermal runaway: a punctured cell only reaches -60°C, without propagation.