Bolt EV Fire Risk: GM Tells Some Owners to Park 50ft From Other Cars

[rcjordan]

https://www.businessinsider.com/bolt-ev-recall-fire-chevrolet-gm-owners-parking-50-feet-2021-9

GM extends EV Bolt production halt to mid-October
https://www.metro.us/gm-extends-ev-bolt/

[ergophobe]

This, in a nutshell, is why I did not want lithium-cobalt batteries (i.e. Tesla Powerwall, among others) attached to or inside my house.

[rcjordan]

I've already told Louise that any EV we might end up with absolutely has to be charged outside. 

But this is just one of several inconvenient truths we're burying now.  Inductive phone chargers also scare the hell outta me.

[ergophobe]

This particular problem, however, is a function of battery chemistry and is relatively unique to the Li-cobalt batteries. It's not (generally) a problem with Lithium-ferro-phosphate and there are some others like iron-air batteries that won't work for cars (energy density).

The issue with Li-cobalt is "thermal runaway." They have a basic problem that resistance drops and temperature rises. So electric cars all have battery heaters. Otherwise, they would be impossible to charge in the cold. But at the other end, things go crazy. They take up energy rapidly and can't dissipate the heat, so they warm up, which means they can take on energy even faster, which means they warm up, which mean... KABOOM