Mach-E catches fire on highway

[SWO]

That video has me scratching my head. It looks like there's a lot of heat in the cabin (trunk?) as you can see the rear cargo cover is melted. Anything is possible, but if there was a high voltage short I would think the majority of the heat would be coming from underneath the vehicle? Isn't the cabin ~isolated from high voltage components?

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[SWO]

It was bound to happen eventually. I’m pretty impressed that it took over 2 years for one to have a fire incident, and this one looks extremely mild compared to most. I can’t think of any other EV that was on sale this long without a fire.

It's something that impresses me about the Mach E - there's pictures of multiple Lucid Airs burned to the ground, Taycans, e-trons, EV6s, Ioniq5s, all burnt to a crisp after thermal runaway. Rivian had a HV battery fire at their factory.

Yet, I haven't seen a single picture of one of the 150k Mach-E's produced lit up like a roman candle.

https://www.chosun.com/economy/auto/2022/06/14/IMDXZ4ZHY5CJ5MCFT76UZ43GH4/

https://www.carscoops.com/2022/02/k...-into-flames-following-collision-in-budapest/

 

[Shayne]

That video has me scratching my head. It looks like there's a lot of heat in the cabin (trunk?) as you can see the rear cargo cover is melted. Anything is possible, but if there was a high voltage short I would think the majority of the heat would be coming from underneath the vehicle? Isn't the cabin ~isolated from high voltage components?

The facebook link is dead here. I see a lot of smoke but no flames. Can not really tell if the fabric cover is melted. Still weird the amount of smoke coming out of the hatch back. Maybe they broke a hole through the floor to get at it? Looks like too much smoke for cabin wiring?

 

[SWO]

The facebook link is dead here. I see a lot of smoke but no flames. Can not really tell if the fabric cover is melted. Still weird the amount of smoke coming out of the hatch back. Maybe they broke a hole through the floor to get at it? Looks like too much smoke for cabin wiring?

You can see the cargo cover hanging melted in the twitter video.

 

[Shayne]

You can see the cargo cover hanging melted in the twitter video.

The twitter seems to be the best I see it hanging but can not really say it is burnt? Maybe?

 

[DR.J56]

I used to race 1/8 and 1/10 scale RC cars off road. In addition to Nitro powered, I also raced battery powered cars. LiPo batteries in this hobby are well known for spectacular fires. I personally know 2 people that burned their garage down from charging batteries and not monitoring them. Fires at the track were a spectators paradise. Old batteries were purposely punctured to get rid of the electric potential. The flames and heat that project from the puncture are like a blow torch. Once the battery is punctured you have seconds worth of time to get away depending on the type of puncture. Could be as little as 5 seconds or as much as a minute. Once the thermal runaway happens, in RC, it’s best to just watch it. If it’s close to something else thats in danger, it’s best to kick the battery to safety if you are brave enough. Kinda hard to do with a full sized car.

 

[MellowJohnny]

I wonder what they thought when they opened the frunk...likely "Aw crap, it's a BEV..."

 

[Dustus]

I would like to see the end result of this. Was what we saw the extent of the fire or did it get worse and completely engulf the car?

 

[ab13]

Snow machine accidents up here hit the news. Could be a 100 people killed in car accidents that day (old news) but someone going threw the ice that will make the front page. Bet there were a few gas cars on fire this month also but that is old news.

Do gas ones catch on fire? I was not too concerned about the gas ones catching an fire either. Since every electric car that catches fire most likely gets reported by the news it is nice to see the probability of the MME catching fire is low to date.

This was an important part of that study, the age of the vehicle. When you look into the details you find interesting observations. .

"Figure 10 shows that roughly three-quarters of the highway vehicle
fires reported in the US in 2017 that were caused by mechanical or
electrical failures (77 percent) involved cars with model years of 2007
or earlier. This was true for only 54 percent of the fires resulting from
collisions or overturns. As vehicles age, parts wear out, extended
maintenance plans expire, and maintenance can be overlooked.
Consequently, it is not surprising that vehicles that are at least
10 years old are at greater risk of a fire started by a mechanical or
electrical failure or malfunction."

 

[ARK]

If the battery was punctured that would cause an instant high voltage shutdown and SSN. They would have to coast to the side of the road.

In the video it doesn't look that bad, not like the whole car burned to the ground (I guess we'll find out).

Does the battery necessarily need to be punctured to cause this type of fire?

I guess what I’m getting at is, is there any situation where some debris gravely damages the battery, yet the high voltage battery remains powered (because no puncture) and the vehicle drivable, and a fire starts 15, 30, 60 min later?

 

[TheSleepyDad]

Where'd the info come from that it was a battery puncture? Everything linked on this thread just says "cause unknown".

 

[RickMachE]

Where'd the info come from that it was a battery puncture? Everything linked on this thread just says "cause unknown".

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS

 

[Blue highway]

Snow machine accidents up here hit the news. Could be a 100 people killed in car accidents that day (old news) but someone going threw the ice that will make the front page. Bet there were a few gas cars on fire this month also but that is old news.

Do gas ones catch on fire? I was not too concerned about the gas ones catching an fire either. Since every electric car that catches fire most likely gets reported by the news it is nice to see the probability of the MME catching fire is low to date.

same issue with small plane crashes... it's out of the norm and so "news". Unfortunately contributes to a lack of perspective

 

[GuliblGuy]

You can see the cargo cover hanging melted in the twitter video.

Damn that thing just refuses to stay in place smh

 

[dtbaker61]

Electric Ford Mustang EV vehicle battery was punctured from freeway debris and caused a fire. CCFD is having a hard time putting it out. It keeps reigniting. They been onscene for about 2 hours now.

Info / news link added by @Mach-Lee

News article: Electric car catches fire causing traffic delays on 215 Beltway near Rainbow Blvd

hopefully they found the HV disconnect, although that would not help if there is an internal short.
also hoping they are not dousing with water, but I don't see any foam or dry powder from class C extinguishers on site.