New Report On Electric Car Fires And Dangers Of Spontaneous Combustion
(climatechangedispatch.com)
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Gas basically does the same thing, if you want to store a lot of energy on a vehicle, the energy density is at risk of exposure.
Thing is - batteries use a chemical storage method that rapidly explodes when it's oxidized and hydrocarbon fuel needs a spark catalyst in order to combust. A battery explodes if it's ruptured in any way, while a ruptured gas tank as long as it's not sparked, doesn't explode.
This is why in vehicles we use chemical batteries like zinc or lead which don't explode when the chemicals oxidize. Li-o has this problem, but it's the battery with the highest energy density on the market.
It's fine as it is but keep in mind these people think we can come up with batteries with higher energy density - the problem will be far worse if that's even physically possible to do - as it is the 1,000 lb batteries can start a near unquenchable chemical fire, imagine if their energy density is doubled!