By Robert Farago
January 17, 2008 -
Fair disclosure: we stole that headline from Engadget. And boy, are we late to this story. electrifyingtimes.com reveals that the conflagration of a single "neighborhood electric vehicle" in Key West– albeit one that immolated model Veronica Webb's dog Hercules and destroyed her house– and it's pig pile on the EV, media-wise. Everyone from the New York Post's Page Six ("Hell-Car burns model's home") to El Rushbo (GM stooge that he is) have covered the story. And the majority are spinning the GEM's fiery end as reflective of inherent danger and/or a possible trend. The reverse spinmeister for the vehicle's maker, Chrysler's GEMCar, claimed that the fire was an isolated incident– as far as they know. "We have gone through our files looking for any other reports of fires relating either to use or charging of GEMs, and haven't found anything," Max Gates revealed. "We don't have anything in our records to indicate there's ever been a previous incident like this." Can you imagine the coverage if a Tesla Roadster or Chevy Volt ever appeared suffered a similar fate? [thanks to starlightmica for the tip]
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January 17th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Let’s tally ‘em up…
EV’s lost to fire: 1
Gas cars lost to fire: (wild guess) 10’s of thousands over the decades
January 17th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
My mom and dad’s Chevy Corvair nearly baked them on the California highway when it caught fire. The car was barely a year old.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I’ve owned many cars and none of them have ever caught fire.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
“Burn Baby Burn, Disco Inferno”
January 17th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
How many Fords have started house fires due to their well known wiring harness problem?
This kind of thing is always going to happen - the question is does it happen infrequently enough to be an acceptable risk?
But risk tolerance is something that most people are really bad at evaluating in an impartial, unemotional way. Look at how worried some people are about a terrorist attack. Statistically, they should be much more worried about being hit by a bus. But that’s not as “scary”…
January 17th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
The plural of anecdote is not “data”.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
If you squit it looks like an F150.
January 17th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Crap, I’m gonna be hit by a bus?!?!? Now I’ve got to worry about that AND the TERRORISTS?!?
January 17th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Gas cars lost to fire: (wild guess) 10’s of thousands over the decades
Pbbfft. There were probably that many lost in France in the past two years.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I agree that this is wildly overcooked.
And that EVs will catch stick without deserving to — unless: it could be that her GEM has been customized with a new battery pack, to extend the range and increase acceleration. There are quite a few shops that will do the honors.
In that case, you have no guarantees. You could be sitting on top of a Li-Ion battery pack just itching to begin deflagration, which is what happens when you run a battery hot to the point where it begins burning uncontrollably.
The dog bought it, which means that this is on a par with the Darfur crisis, I guess, as far as the media are concerned.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Amazing how a random story about some golf cart catching fire garners domestic bashing comments.
How do u spell a-g-e-n-d-a?
January 17th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
“I’ve owned many cars and none of them have ever caught fire.”
The plural of anecdote is not “data”.
I’ll keep that in mind whenever I hear some sob story about somebody’s ‘89 Cougar that suffered from spontaneous destruction.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
My neighbor’s Wagoneer burned one day for no particularly good reason. Apparently Wagoneers had a habit of doing that.
He replaced it with a very sweet Mercedes 300S circa 1980. The car was previous generation to the then current pig cars (you know the Ss that looked like mid 70s Cadillacs). It had a 3 liter in-line 6. Very smooth, beautiful car.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
One of my neighbors had an unscheduled carbeque with their Jeep Wrangler last summer. I wonder if there is a connection there or even worse, a conspiracy.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:39 am
The GEM vehicle pictured uses lead acid batteries, same as have been used since the late 1800’s. Sh*t happens.
January 18th, 2008 at 3:02 am
@Paul Niedermeyer
The GEM vehicle pictured uses lead acid batteries, same as have been used since the late 1800’s. Sh*t happens.
Yes - though I have seen GEMs modded with “custom” battery packs for greater range. Maybe an electrical fault not necessarily attributable to the pack itself?
January 18th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Can you imagine the coverage if a Tesla Roadster or Chevy Volt ever appeared suffered a similar fate?
Can you imagine the coverage if Britney’s car had suffered a similar fate? … if Anna Nicole had died in the fire? … if aliens had started the fire? … if a new GEM rose from the ashes?
Imagine if we change the fundamental facts of the situation - what then? I’ve never understood the appeal of this sort of argument.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Donal:
AP is ready for Britney, they’ve already written obituary.
Follow-up article from TG Daily: unclear if this was an accidental fire or a test burn (huh?). The article also reports 2 more GEM EV fires in addition to the above two.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Car fires happen. She could have accidently dropped a Marlboro in the floor board and walked inside for all we know.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
If you squint it looks like a Fiero
January 19th, 2008 at 1:03 am
I dunno. Looks more like a Fuego to me.
(Or, if the owner is particularly unfortunate, a Phoenix.)