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WARNING, WARNING! DANGER, DANGER! WILL ROBINSON

These were the famous words of the loveable B-9 Robot from the famous 1960s TV series LOST IN SPACE.

These were the words that came to mind when thinking of the inherent danger of lithium ion rechargeable batteries in cars, bicycles and other electric devices that have been reported in the news over and over again causing uncontrollable fires in homes, on highways and even sinking boats. The most famous of losses includes the loss of over 2,000 new vehicles owned by Volkswagen Group in 2022 and several apartment building fires that cost billions of dollars in damages and many lives lost.

The facts are that battery fires are nearly uncontrollable and cannot be extinguished by water or other fire suppression, which poses great risks to occupants of cars and dwellings.
One caller recently alleged that she received a recall notice from GM to not store her new electric vehicle in the garage and not park it near the house or other buildings due to risk of battery fires! There was no suggestion when that risk would be fixed.

Another caller just told me his new BMW caught fire with no warning and the fire department could not extinguish the fire, even after encasement, but rather a Hazmat team had to be called in and the battery burned uncontrollably for hours! Fortunately this occurred in a parking lot, but what if this had occurred in a tunnel? Think of the crisis if an EV or Hybrid car started to burn uncontrollably inside a tunnel while in stopped traffic! Certainly many people and other vehicles would be at immediate risk with nowhere to flee the deadly heat and fumes.
The safely measures required for battery fires have not caught up to the technology.

I, thus, would not want any vehicles with batteries until perhaps years in the future if redesigned to contain the batteries in fire proof boxes, and question if even such could contain the intensive heat of battery fires.

I therefore recommend to everyone who has E-bikes or EVs to never store them indoors and stay out of tunnels. For the rest of us, those that do not heed these warnings pose a real danger to the occupants of their dwellings, vehicles and even those others around them.

I wonder if Dr. Smith would concur (if still with us) that the batteries that power our modern vehicles are just too dangerous to be used and that other safer technologies need to be explored.

Ligitation & General Practice

Anthony T. Ballato, Esq. on Auto Fraud and NY Lemon Law Part 1 and 2

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