Fire possibly caused by iMiev

[Kuuuurija]

Whoa! Unless something further is learned from this mishap, which all indications are that it exonerates the iMiEV, may I suggest that we let this inflammatory :lol: thread extinguish :lol: and continue battery voltage discussions on one of the battery threads;
for example, http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1275
Thank you.

It is still strange, that it took almost 4 months of investigation and involvement of the Mitsubishi representatives to reach such vague findings. Main conclusion of the expert report was that the cause of fire is still unclear.

Electric car was ruled out as a source of fire only because the tracking device was able to send its last message at least 6 minutes after the fire has spread. But electric car has no fuel under the hood and therefore fire spreads different way than in ICE car. Dashboard and plastic shell of the tracker could have considerable fire resistance.

I wonder why they did not publish the readings of the ambient temperature sensor, transmitted by the tracker once every minute? Or other sensors (main battery voltage etc)? Changes in readings and possibly failing of some sensors could be important to determine the sequence of events.

 

[BlueLightning]

What type of battery is used for Chevy Volt?
http://jalopnik.com/5858690/chevy-volt-crash-test-fire-explodes-into-federal-investigation

"ranwhenparked ........ OK, so the lesson here is that if you total your Volt in an accident, do not, under any circumstances, remain in your vehicle, as you have less than a month to escape the wrecked car before it bursts into flames. 11/11/11 4:44pm"

NHTSA has closed their investigation into the Chevrolet Volt’s fire risk, stating that the agency “does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.”
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/01/nhtsa-closes-chevrolet-volt-fire-investigation/

The damaged vehicle and its battery pack were shipped to an NHTSA test center in East Liberty, Ohio, where Hughes Associates, the NHTSA and GM engineers did a forensic inspection and battery teardown. It was here that they learned a "transverse stiffener" had penetrated the battery pack tunnel, damaged battery cells and ruptured coolant lines. Hughes concluded at this time that battery damage and electrical shorts in the pack led to the fire.
http://www.torquenews.com/1075/chevy-volt-fire-what-did-nhtsa-know-and-when-did-they-know-it

'The protocol not followed by federal testers, according to GM's spokesman was not "de-energizing the battery after the crash test." '

 

[Kuuuurija]

It was found during first 6 months of usage, that at least 7 iMievs of those, that were delivered here last spring, had defective battery. The burned car was of the same shipment. There were defective cells and defective connections between the cells.

Source: http://www.epl.ee/news/eesti/sotsiaaltootajate-elektriautode-akud-osutusid-praagiks.d?id=65399904
You must copy the text and let it googletranslate yourself from Estonian language.

 

[aarond12]

You must copy the text and let it googletranslate yourself from Estonian language.

Use this print-ready link and Google Translate (or Chrome's built-in translation engine) work just fine.

http://www.epl.ee/archive/print.php?id=65399904

 

[lawjds]

I would say between this and the Japan article today that we might have a issue folks......

 

[Vike]

I would say between this and the Japan article today that we might have a issue folks......

I wouldn't. There is no evidence that the Estonian garage fire was caused by the i-MiEV itself, with several other factors being more likely. The fires in Japan were directly tied to a change in the battery manufacturing process that occurred after all our cars were built, a change that resulted in one battery pack igniting before it was even installed in a car, and the relative handful of cars using those batteries (because manufacturing was halted when the problem was suspected) never left Japan.

None of this is to say that our batteries are perfectly safe and will remain so forever; some entirely different problem might be discovered, as could occur with any car (anybody remember the spectacularly self-immolating GM V8-6-4?). But neither of these stories changes the risk - they're just not relevant to our cars.