Believe it or not, this was an i3. Unlike the 328i that was also destroyed in the fire, it's difficult to tell that this pile of burnt material was once a car. |
Luckily, since the recent electric vehicle movement began roughly 6 years ago, there have been very few cases of EV fires, and to my knowledge no one involved has suffered an injury. Other than a couple of incidents involving the defunct Fisker Karma, the causes of EV fires have been mostly a direct result of a severe impact compromising the battery pack. I don't know of any instance where an EV has caught on fire because of a systems failure with the high voltage battery pack or power electronics. In fact, as a comparison a gasoline powered vehicle has a greater chance of having a fire than an EV, statistically speaking.
You can recognize the seat frames, strands of carbon fiber and the optional rear 20" Sport wheel, but not much more |
A very unfortunate scene |
It's pretty shocking to see how little is left of the i3 after the fire. The plastic body panels and CFRP Life Cell just melted away. Without the steel frame and passenger compartment used in a conventionally built car, there is practically nothing recognizable in the pile of i3 debris after the fire. However once they started cleaning up, they were able to drag the aluminum frame with the battery tray out of the garage with a tow truck. Although you can't tell from the photos, the owner, Tory Johnson told me that the aluminum frame and battery tray were still intact. Tory also said it was interesting to see that while the resin which holds the carbon fiber together had melted away, the actual strands of carbon fiber didn't melt, and were clearly visible after the fire.
The 328i next to the i3 in the garage was also destroyed by the fire, however you can still tell it was once an 328i |
Even after removing the debris and cleaning up the garage floor had clumps of dried CRFP resin where the i3 had basically melted away.
aluminum
battery
BMW
BMW i3
Carbon Fiber
CFRP
charging
electric cars
fire
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5 (
88 ratings )
- Tuesday, December 08, 2015
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