Could This Happen to a Mach E?

[djett]

This EV driver had metal road debris puncture the battery and start a fire. Bad day to be on the Mass Pike. The second article is about changes Tesla made to prevent a similar problem. My question - how would the Mach E fare in a similar situation?



https://www.motortrend.com/news/shields-up-tesla-debuts-shield-to-protect-against-battery-punctures

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[E90alex]

Yes the battery can catch fire if punctured. There’s no magic way to prevent this and it’s it doesn’t matter the brand of car. It just happens with any lithium ion battery if it’s punctured.

LFP batteries are supposedly more resistant to fire if punctured but they’re not fire proof.

 

[AZBill]

I just had the mud flap on my Rivian punctured by debris, barely missed the tire.

 

[ChrisO]

Note for people that didn't read it the change on the Tesla is:

In response to the fires that occurred last year, Tesla has developed a fix for the Model S that makes the battery pack virtually impenetrable to road debris. CEO Elon Musk announced the fix, which specifies a three-layer battery shield made of ballistic-grade aluminum and titanium.

That would certainly up the odds of it not happening.

Does beg a question though, what is the cost? After all, ever ICE car on the road is just as or maybe even more prone to a puncher in the gas tank starting a fire.

It is also notable that in time I believe the EV market will actually fix this problem with safer batteries, whereas that is never going to happen for ICE cars.

I just had the mud flap on my Rivian punctured by debris, barely missed the tire.

Looking at that I would say that it didn't "miss the tire". The tire went over the rod and threw it into the mud flap.

 

[Mach-Lee]

It's rare, but yes we are susceptible to battery punctures. One happened to a Mach-E a couple years ago in Las Vegas IIRC. Try to avoid road debris if at all possible. Yes it can cause an instant fire shooting out from the floor and burn you like what happened to him.

Making the battery completely impenetrable is expensive and not practical, but a debris deflector would be. I'm honestly not sure how much the legacy automakers like Ford and GM have studied or mitigated the road debris puncture problem. As shown in the video, it creates a huge headache for first responders and traffic to deal with a battery puncture, in addition to being a total vehicle loss and safety concern. Perhaps NHTSA or IIHS will adopt a debris or puncture test if it becomes a frequent problem with EVs. We have a front subframe that sticks down almost as far as the battery pack, that would hopefully stop anything large. But so does the Equinox EV, and clearly that failed to stop the debris in this case.

I just had the mud flap on my Rivian punctured by debris, barely missed the tire.

You got VERY lucky!

 

[CameraCarl]

I just had the mud flap on my Rivian punctured by debris, barely missed the tire.

A similar thing happened to me with a rental car in Colorado some years back. My front tire shot a foot long sliver of wood straight back along the rocker panel. It stuck in the aero "mud flap" in front of the rear tire. If that flap hadn't been there I would have had a blow out and possibly a nasty accident .

 

[RickMachE]

The Lightning has higher ground clearance than the Mach-E. In addition, I believe it has more battery protection. None the less, a member on the Lightning forum had a stick come up and rip off the cooling hose located in the front compartment, missing the shields and going right up in the open space.

In short, unless you have an armored bottom, which some trucks do have, you are not safe from battery or other damage from objects on the road. And it's not only EVs of course.

 

[Keytone]

CEO Elon Musk announced the fix, which specifies a three-layer battery shield made of ballistic-grade aluminum and titanium.

Is that a marketing equivalent to his unsuccessful ballistics demonstration on the cyber-truck?

Aluminum has always been our goto armour protection in the field.......

 

[ChrisO]

Is that a marketing equivalent to his unsuccessful ballistics demonstration on the cyber-truck?

Aluminum has always been our goto armour protection in the field.......

Oops, I forgot who was talking!

Yeah, you have to take what that guy says with a BIG grain of salt.

 

[AZBill]

Note for people that didn't read it the change on the Tesla is:


That would certainly up the odds of it not happening.

Does beg a question though, what is the cost? After all, ever ICE car on the road is just as or maybe even more prone to a puncher in the gas tank starting a fire.

It is also notable that in time I believe the EV market will actually fix this problem with safer batteries, whereas that is never going to happen for ICE cars.



Looking at that I would say that it didn't "miss the tire". The tire went over the rod and threw it into the mud flap.

The front tire ran over it and threw it into the rear mud flap.

 

[ChrisO]

The front tire ran over it and threw it into the rear mud flap.

Oh, I thought that was the front tire!

Wow! you really did get lucky!

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