BEV Fires Encourage China to Get Serious About Battery Safety, Vehicle Monitoring

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

China is currently the largest proponent of electric vehicles on the entire planet. The nation has even incorporated BEVs as a significant part of its complex strategy to overtake the United States the dominant global superpower. However a sudden influx of battery related fires has caused it some trepidation, even though there hasn’t been much evidence to suggest they are actually more prone to catching fire than gas-powered vehicles.

Regardless, the People’s Republic is now demanding that manufacturers conduct routine inspections on electric cars. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology says all companies must conduct checks on BEVs, focusing on battery waterproofing, battery boxes, charging points, high-voltage wiring harnesses, and even the wear of mechanical components. They will also be required to report on repairs and any incidents that might indicate a problem. According to the ministry’s press release, they have until October to submit their findings.

Those inspections will not be limited to factory vehicles. China said EVs already been sold to the public should also be checked, with extra attention being given to high-milage vehicles like busses and cabs. For personal transport, the ministry said manufacturers needed to “clearly inform the user when the vehicle triggers the conditions” so they can return the cars for inspection. Triggers include routine maintenance schedules, any accidents, the car being exposed to standing water, and all noteworthy system malfunctions (heat management, overcharge, etc).

However, this should be relatively easy to do since China has put in place an impressive system that effectively spies on all drivers with connected EVs. Automakers are required by the state to share the data collected from these vehicles with local government centers and a national lab that tracks the cars in real time.

China claims this is being done to promote safety, improve city planning, and reduce harmful emissions. But it’s also the only country in the whole world that does it. While other nations do collect driving data from automakers that monitor the status of connected vehicles, it’s not mandated by the government or sent to government-backed monitoring centers.

In its release, the Chinese ministry said manufacturers should likewise monitor for safety issues “24-7” by implementing an all-day-every-day program to ensure the drivers of at-risk vehicles be notified immediately. This information is then supposed to be delivered to “local and national regulatory platforms within one day.”

Bloomberg, which glossed over much of the data sharing, said that China is upset over the highly publicized battery fires from Tesla and NIO. The country recorded at least 40 fire-related incidents stemming from new-energy vehicles in 2018. The State Administration for Market Regulation also recalled 130,000 new-energy vehicles last year, which it claimed was unacceptable.

[Image: Wideweb/Shutterstock]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Conundrum Conundrum on Jun 19, 2019

    When an EV does catch fire, there is some level of stored energy in its battery pack, just as when a petromobile combusts, the fuel tank will have some dinojuice in it representing stored energy. If you douse a flaming petromobile with water or foam by excluding oxygen, you essentially stop the further release of energy from whatever fuel remains. Dousing a burning EV with whatever does nothing useful with respect to the remaining stored energy in the battery. You could pour 20 tons of sand over it from a dump truck and not change the outcome. It doesn't matter about on-board diagnostics keeping the driver informed on battery health - that unfortunate got the hell out of the burning EV and ran to a safe distance. Smart. So firefighters haven't any idea what the hell they're facing with an EV fire. Is it a major short or a minor one, how much energy is left in the battery, if they kill the outward signs of combustion, will a short reignite a fire later as seems to sometime happen? It's all a big unknown, likely very dangerous because of the unknowns and for that reason an EV fire is MUCH MORE of an event than a petromobile incinerating itself. Sorry EV fans and apologizers, it just is. Lithium batteries have a very low self-discharge rate when not connected to a load, so a wrecked EV could be sitting there in a yard like a small unexploded device. When the "experts" like Murilee come along to wrench off spare parts, who knows what can happen? Any dolt knows that removing a gas cap and flicking a BIC can be a problem. I knew one in my high school class and he had no hair and looked like he'd had been roasting in the Caribbean sun the next day - too bad it was February and snowing, and he was lucky as he was blown into a snowdrift. But there's no way to know how to approach a derelict EV with your Harbor Freight Deluxe tool kit and be safe, no handy points to probe with a voltmeter if you really don't want to blind yourself with a possible electric arc flash by causing an inadvertent short. There's plenty to ponder for the future, But luckily, living in the West and not subject to any electronic surveillance whatsoever by anyone at all like Alexa phoning home with your every cough and unravelling noise of a spinning toilet roll holder, the Chinese who live in a different dystopia of unreality seem to be actively pursuing EV safety programs, while free minds are bogged down with the ratio of petromobile to EV fires, not what to do before as in prevention and after when facing an actual EV fire event. Let's get real on the technical side without bringing up extraneous arguments that get us all nowhere.

  • Dantes_inferno Dantes_inferno on Jun 19, 2019

    Break out the marshmallows.

  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
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