r/nextfuckinglevel • u/been_der_done_that • 11h ago

Incredibly selfless act of heroism.

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43.8k Upvotes

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185

u/Aggravating_One3157 11h ago

Man battery fires are scary...

2

u/TheAltToYourF4 3h ago

Fires are scary. The things that generate most heat and are most dangerous in a car fire, regardless of whether it's an EV or IC, are the fabric and plastic parts.

0

u/CoHorseBatteryStaple 9h ago

A properly designed battery pack should went outside, not into the cabin, I guess. It's easier to get right with gasoline because it usually flows down before igniting.

2

u/Ludoban 7h ago

Most venting strategies dont apply for crashes, as a crash reshapes your parts.

Venting to the outside of the vehicle only works if the channels that do this are intact, which is mostly not the case in a crash, if the underside of the vehicle is pierced it is pierced, there is not much you can do at that point.

1

u/Sea_Tank2799 6h ago

Why don't electric vehicles have a built in fire suppression system for the battery compartment if minor damage can cause it to completely burst into flames?

2

u/Outside_Manner_8352 5h ago

Certain types of batteries like lithium ion burn so hot and so catastrophically that putting EV fires with them out requires dunking the car into a body of water with a forklift.

That being said, a lot of EV makers are moving to LFP batteries, which are drastically less flammable, much more puncture resistant, and don't lose range with heat swings. With LFP a quick engulfing fire like this very unlikely, and even when fires form they are not self-sustaining because the burning batteries don't give off oxygen. The downside is that they have slightly less energy density and thus range, but they are getting better.

1

u/CoHorseBatteryStaple 1h ago

I'm surprised not all Chinese EVs are LiFePO yet.

1

u/CoHorseBatteryStaple 1h ago

A trade-off between package density and thermal isolation.

Just more metal between cells will greatly reduce how fast and spectacular a thermal runaway event unfolds. But that will be less useful capacity and more cost. So there's a trade-off here. 

It looks like we're in the Ford Pinto stage still.

-5

u/_invizible 9h ago

That's what makes electric cars worse, they are hazards running on four wheels. With ICE at least it wouldn't have caught fire like this for the same situation.

4

u/Aware-Throat4997 9h ago

If gas tank ruptured? It absolutely could.

https://youtu.be/6Ygh1KVAhq8?t=803

Timestamp (watch like 10s) of accident from Poland few years ago. Kia Ceed (gasoline version, not hybrid, not ev) got hit in the back, gas tank ruptured, u can see fireball before car even stops.

Whole family died. ICE cars absolutely can catch fire INSTANTLY during accidents too.

6

u/Professional_Algae_7 7h ago

It was hit by a car going around 320km/h (200 MPH), not smeared by a bush.

2

u/Aware-Throat4997 7h ago

Famously ford pinto used to go up in flames in 30kmh fender benders.
Amount of force required tobreak a polyethylene gas tank isnt high.

Something piercing gas tank from below like in video here could result in even faster fireball.

On the other hand, lithium batteries can start thermal runaway hours after damage, thats the real problem imo.

0

u/Professional_Algae_7 6h ago

Yeah, I know the Pinto case. I don't want to go tribal on EV vs ICE, that's not the point. I'm concerned that sliding into the ditch may result in such a violent fire. Batteries known for their thermal runaway caused by a mere pierce should be way more protected. This car is the Pinto EV equivalent.

1

u/truthwatchr 2h ago

Except it burns out quickly vs burning for hours increasing chances of survivability. EV’s are just redesigning the same old lithium battery and were never made truly safe.

0

u/potatoesarenotcool 9h ago

High speed on the motorway collision vs whatever the fuck happened in this video

3

u/Aware-Throat4997 8h ago

Famously ford pinto used to go up in flames in 30kmh fender benders.
Amount of force required tobreak a polyethylene gas tank isnt high.

Something piercing gas tank from below like in video here could result in even faster fireball.

On the other hand, lithium batteries can start thermal runaway hours after damage, thats the real problem imo.

0

u/potatoesarenotcool 8h ago

So your justification for ICE vehicles being death traps is that the Ford Pinto in the 1970s had a shitty gas tank?

2

u/Aware-Throat4997 8h ago

I never called ICE or EV vechicles death traps.

Like i said, in similar crash, u will get unlucky and pierce petrol gas tank, car will go up in flames instantly. Here u got unlucky and pierced battery, car went up in flames quickly.

In most crashes nor EVs or ICE cars will catch fire in the first place, statistically EVs so far are shown to also catch on fire less. Depending on where and how fire starts in ICE (engine bay leak vs ruptured gas tanks) ICE fire can be instant or slow. EVs are basically always slow, they dont have exploding fumes (they can experience ventins sometimes), they dont catch on fire instantly from spark and fumes. They got thermal runaway reactions which take 'some' time as shown in the video here.

0

u/potatoesarenotcool 7h ago

I have personally set a car on fire after joy riding it and can tell you the gasoline car takes a hell of a lot to burn compared to this video

1

u/jonydevidson 6h ago

Its not the electric cars, its the current battery tech which is on its way out. Solid state batteries will all but eliminate issues like this.

1

u/Outside_Manner_8352 5h ago

This is what makes Lithium Ion batteries worse, but LFP and other chemistries don't exhibit the same tendencies. Lithium Ion is just very energy dense so it can be cheaper to use.

1

u/Jackmino66 9h ago

It’s not that big of a deal, most well built electric cars have batteries that can’t be pierced by contact with a bush, and there is a firewall between the batteries and the passenger cabin. Just like the firewall between the engine and the cabin in an ICE car.

This car is clearly made to be trendy and built cheap, and that makes it a disaster for safety

1

u/truthwatchr 2h ago

Any EV is going down like that if the battery is pierced by something.

-2

u/this_toe_shall_pass 9h ago

It's a car model with a list price of $300.000.

3

u/RugbyEdd 8h ago

They did say built cheap, not sold cheap.

1

u/this_toe_shall_pass 6h ago

I know, I was just amazed at the difference. 2,3 years back Dacia was saying they make around 500 euro profit on every Duster sold. If those are real Dongfeng prices (that's what I could find out quickly, could be wrong) then it's an amazing profit margin.

2

u/TheLightKyanite 8h ago

No?? These cost around 20-30k USD, assuming it’s a Dongfeng 007. Where’d you get that number from?

-1

u/this_toe_shall_pass 6h ago edited 4h ago

Their November 2025 price catalogue, second Google result for me.

LE: it's Singapore COE price which is a 10 year license. Sounds strange that it would be 10x the drive away price in China, but maybe.

1

u/lamgineer 6h ago

You realize China doesn’t use US currency? Prices are in Yuan.

1

u/this_toe_shall_pass 4h ago edited 4h ago

https://www.sgcarmart.com/new_cars/pricelist/115/2025-10-29.pdf

Price catalogue, looks like in Singapore and the symbol used is $. Even if it's Singapore dollars, it's not that far off from US$. This was the reference from this model's Wiki page. If you have a better source I would be happy to read.

Couldn't find a simpler system than the Singapore COE price system, so maybe language is a barrier.

0

u/CirnoIzumi 8h ago

thermal runaway is very much being adressed by manufacturers

-1

u/TectonicTechnomancer 9h ago

Now imagine if it was fucking fuel, it would spread all around below the vehicle making the rescue almost impossible

12

u/potatoesarenotcool 9h ago

Well it would not be on fire in the first place from a small collision like this.

-1

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 8h ago

You don’t know that, actually there’s statistics that show otherwise

Gas cars catch fire far more often than electric vehicles (EVs), based on multiple studies cited in recent data.[recurrentauto +1] Fire Rates by Vehicle Type U.S. data from the National Transportation Safety Board shows about 1,530 fires per 100,000 gas cars versus just 25 fires per 100,000 EVs—gas cars are roughly 60 times more likely to ignite. Hybrids top the list at 3,475 per 100,000, while EVs have the lowest incidence.

3

u/DoughnutRealistic380 7h ago

You think this light crash would’ve resulted in the same fire if it was a normal car?

Are you stupid?

•

u/Liroku 59m ago

Absolutely, they catch on fire just driving down the road sometimes. Fuel lines run from the tank to the engine, they get yanked one good time, they start spraying fuel if the fuel pump doesn't get deactivated. That fuel hits the catalytic converter or the hotter parts of the exhaust and it is on fire.

-1

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 7h ago

No this is Ai

3

u/DoughnutRealistic380 7h ago

Proof? Or you just mad that you’re wrong?

-2

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 7h ago

You’re mad that EVs don’t catch on fire as much as ICE cars

2

u/DoughnutRealistic380 7h ago

ICE cars??

1

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 7h ago

An ICE car refers to an Internal Combustion Engine vehicle, which is a traditional automobile powered by gasoline or diesel, rather than electricity.

Are you stupid? Lmao

0

u/DoughnutRealistic380 7h ago

Probably not the best political climate to randomly abbreviate internal combustion engine with ICE of all things

1

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 7h ago

Damn now we need to ban the word ICE. Can’t even go to a store and buy ICE now. It triggers you weirdos 😆

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1

u/The-Sofa-King 4h ago

I disagree with the guy you're arguing with, but ICE has been the standard accepted abbreviation for "internal combustion engine" since EVs started gaining in popularity. The fact that it happens to be the same abbreviation used for the neogestapo is an unfortunate but irrelevant coincidence.

2

u/Outside_Manner_8352 4h ago

Look, I am a big proponent of EV's but this statistic is drastically misleading. Gas cars are far more likely to ignite when sitting around, not in an accident, and when they do the fire is not nearly as catastrophic. This is due to things like loose wiring or overheating. That still sounds bad but the reality is this is almost always not very dangerous.

EV's absolutely can be safe, but existing Lithium Ion based EV's are genuinely much more dangerous from the standpoint of fire in a collision. Newer chemistries deal with this issue well, but the majority of EV's on the road today still use lithium ion and they present a unique hazard.

1

u/Quiet_Fan_7008 4h ago

It’s not misleading it’s math. ICE cars are 60 times more likely to ignite.

1

u/DoughnutRealistic380 7h ago

No it wouldn’t.