Burning BYD EV Gets Frosty Reception
Pictures of a burning BYD e6 sent the already beaten down BYD stock on a nose-dive yesterday. The e6 is one of the rare BYD electric cars, used in a taxi test in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. A Nissan GT-R had crashed into two taxis, one a conventional Santana, the other an electric e6. The e6 immediately did burst into flames. Two female passengers and the driver were killed.
According to Carnewschina.com, “investors are extremely worried about implications for BYD’s electric vehicle sales.” Such as they were.
Last year, news of burning Volts and burning charging stations became the fuel of inflammatory anti-EV rhetoric. Earlier this year, GM announced a fix to its battery pack after an NHTSA investigation into why a Volt caught fire following crash testing.
The lithium used in lithium ion batteries can be extremely flammable under certain circumstances.
“Lithium burns really hot,” engineering consultant Sandy Munro told Automotive News. “But it doesn’t happen often. You have to do something pretty dramatic to make it catch fire.”
Such a dramatic incident can occur during an accident when a ;piece of steel pierces the battery case. A chemical reaction can take place and may result in a fire.. If the piercing is small, that reaction can take days or weeks to occur, Munro said.
Today, BYD issued a statement, saying its battery pack is safe because it has passed all tests “required by relevant authorities.” The stock recovered.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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"BYD issued a statement, saying its battery pack is safe because it has passed all tests required by relevant authorities. " Sounds like chinese corporations are at least 20 years behind the times when it comes to corporate PR and crisis management. Any american corporation would have said something like "This is a very unusual outcome since our cars have been thoroughly crash tested in the harshest conditions possible. We will fully investigate the incidence to ensure the highest standards of safety for our customers...."
The city of Windsor in Ontario (Canada) is actively involved in negotiations with BYD to get an electric bus factory established there (they've already agreed to purchase a certain number of such buses, as incentive I would assume). This may not bode well...
So... BYD = Burn You Down? Nice headline. The more apparent issue here is, "do you really expect to withstand that kind of an impact in ANYTHING?" It would turn a Subaru or a Honda into a fireball, too. I am the last one to defend Chinese "engineering", but this is ignorant journalism. Come on.
Warren Buffett must be thrilled...