The battery in an Electric Bus exploded in Paris, and the bus was quickly engulfed in flames. Thankfully the bus driver was able to evacuate everyone and there were no serious injuries.
One of the big drawbacks of electric vehicles, is when a battery cell malfunctions, it explodes, which sets off a series of cascading failures, where all the neighboring batteries explode, and the vehicle becomes a raging inferno in a very short period of time. The fire is fueled by the chemicals in the batteries, which can’t be extinguished by water or any of the chemicals most fire departments use. To put out this fire requires a different chemical extinguisher, which is expensive, and not kept on hand by most fire departments. They often have to let the fire burn through all of the batteries and extinguish itself, which can take days before it’s finally finished.
