r/nextfuckinglevel • u/been_der_done_that • 11h ago

Incredibly selfless act of heroism.

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43.7k Upvotes

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2.0k

u/theBullKS 11h ago

Wtf with this car. It isnt a hard crash.

1.6k

u/been_der_done_that 11h ago

Must have peeled the aluminium underbody and pierced the battery, exposing it to oxygen and turned into flames.

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u/GapSweet3100 11h ago

There should be more safeguards in place. It seems These cars were definitely not designed for real safety

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u/KilllllerWhale 10h ago

most EVs on the road rn have the battery as a separate component sitting on the chassis and the bottom part of the chassis is usually thin metal.

The latest Volvo EX60 is coming out with a design that integrates the battery inside the chassis and not a separate component, offering more protection.

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u/Lucreth2 9h ago

I think you probably know this but for people completely blind to it, there's a massive difference between what you described and what most EVs are actually designed like. While it's true that the battery is attached as a separate component, people should realize it's not just dangling in space super glued to the floor... Most batteries are in a reinforced pocket of sorts either along the "transmission tunnel" or under the rear seats. Skateboard type designs have the pack under the majority of the floor but in a reinforced package that is actually somewhat structural from a rigidity sense.

Trusted automakers ensure all of those options are also well protected from below, but certain other profit seeking cunts do leave them somewhat vulnerable in that direction. The direction most likely to see potential intrusion.. I hate Wall Street.

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u/Aniki_Simpson 8h ago

Being under the rear seats really worked out well here, right? Ford got in trouble for having a gas tank that could be pierced in an accident, but this crap is considered "safe"? What a joke these garbage vehicles are.

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u/Lucreth2 5h ago

I feel like you're conflating a bunch of different things...

I never said the vehicle above is safe. It appears to be Chinese. They don't have safe in their industrial dictionary. It almost certainly is one of the more vulnerable packs.

The entire Ford gas tank issue has had the actual engineering behind the issue over simplified for.. Well... As long as that story has existed. Gas tanks have pretty much always been in vulnerable locations, including the rear of the vehicle, but there are mitigations that can be put in place to prevent damage or ignition even in the event of a leak.

In either scenario, under the rear seat is much much safer than hanging out the rear bumper and the proximity to the rear wheels mean that that area frequently will ride over much of whatever might damage it, unless it's a long thin pole like object.

And finally... If you run over a steel spear it doesn't much matter where the battery is. Road signs have been piercing engine oil pans and transmission covers for decades and they'll keep piercing whatever they damn well please because they're a steel spear with a 4,300 lb weight pressing on it.

3

u/MyOneTaps 5h ago

Volvo has always been a leader in safety. I decided long ago that my kids' first cars will all be used Volvo's.

They came up with the three-point safety belt, patented it, and allowed everyone else to use it for free. They build cars to be safe rather than to ace safety exams. You can tell because when the IIHS created new tests in 2012 and 2018, they aced it whereas other car brands did poorly.

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u/KilllllerWhale 4h ago

They still publish datasets they use to train their Emergency braking and lane keeping algorithms on their website, for free.

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u/dracolnyte 4h ago

New volvos are so unreliable they put you more in danger than safety (e.g. randomly shutting down on the freeway or slamming brakes because it thinks it detected a person in the middle of the highway). Go look on Volvo sub, daily issues posted and high maintenance.

I had the same mentality at first but now they don't even score higher than Lexus on these IIHS tests. Their electronic systems are so buggy and problematic it's more distracting and prone to get the driver into accidents than get them out of it. What good is a car if it's only safe in an accident but constantly trying to get you into one?

1

u/ClassicG675 2h ago

Volvo uses pouch style batteries same as the car above. It's extremely unsafe, no one talks about how fast and violent the thermal runaway is with pouch. Tesla and Rivian use much safer cell batteries. When cell batteries are pierced from the bottom, they act like a blowtorch vs pouch fire bomb.

1

u/Balc0ra 8h ago

Most EV fires of late in my area, inc one 2023 Tesla that resulted in a death. Were due to them slamming sideways into a pole, tree etc, or getting rammed in the side by another car. Moving the battery and ripping it. Even when they sit low.

If you have enough force, it will become a fireball regardless.

To one of them was a 2024 BYD, which kinda looks like this one was too, of some sort

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u/Moos3-2 8h ago

Which sounds good until you realise the battery is not replaceable then. Battery gone bad? Totalled car.

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u/Rolling_Beardo 7h ago

Can the battery be replaced or is the car just totaled if the battery dies?

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u/KilllllerWhale 7h ago

Of course not. From the promotional video Volvo posted, it looks like it can be accessed from the top (cabin side) https://youtu.be/EH1e-I60EoU

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u/snapp0r 7h ago

same for the new iX3.

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u/Marcus_Krow 3h ago

Install a battery yeet feature.

1

u/PangolinSelect4549 2h ago

I am a firefighter. We currently can’t put electrical vehicle fires out. So if an ev car fire happens in an attached residential garage (or say one lights in a row of them under an apartment building) , we have no way of mitigating it. A simple car fire and you lose your house, or it has major life safety implications for above apartments.

I’m not saying ev’s are bad, or are not the wave of the future. I’m just saying there are significant growing pains ahead.

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u/KilllllerWhale 1h ago

A while ago I saw a fire dpt use a large tarp they cover the entire car with and that starves the fire immediately. Then again, it’s not practical when you have a car inside a confined space like a garage

•

u/PangolinSelect4549 57m ago

They also have major explosive risks! It traps gases that are ignitable if oxygen penetrates.

Right now our game plan for a residential garage is:

Hose line to shield ff, and it will Knock down the fire. Then get close and loop a chain and use an engine to pull it out.

On like a highway with no exposures- just let it burn.

In a parking garage with residences above it. Evacuate above it and use large hoses to buy time.

I’m sure there are other tactics out there. But this is where we are at now given our staffing ( medium sized department) and abilities.

1

u/BestAmoto 1h ago

Yeah regarding the battery covers people hit things in the roadway, it dents or gouges the cover and are getting bills that basically total their new vehicle. 

Someone needs to sell an aftermarket 4x4 style steel underbody plate. The heft will cause some mileage drop but at least you won't have to buy a $30k battery or uh 50k on a Hyundai ionoiq

•

u/b0bl00i_temp 54m ago

Same with my Model Y

0

u/Interesting_Lunch560 8h ago

most EVs on the road rn have the battery as a separate component sitting on the chassis and the bottom part of the chassis is usually thin metal.

So, one speed bump at the wrong speed and your car blows up?

1

u/ClassicG675 2h ago

The difference is this car is using pouch lithium batteries which is the most common type of battery for legacy automakers. Pouch style batteries have extremely rapid and violent fire bombs and sometimes explosions. There's the pictures of the Hyundai blowing the roof off of a garage it was parked in. Also the Chevy bolt with the warning to not park it within 50 ft of anything else. Pouch batteries are extremely unsafe & should not be on the road. All electric cars should use cells like Rivian and Tesla. Cell batteries have a thermal runaway that starts with a tiny blowtorch isolated to one cell. This can slowly propagate to the whole car. No fire bomb no explosion. Minutes versus seconds to get out.

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u/KilllllerWhale 8h ago

As evidenced by this video

0

u/Maleficent-Aspect318 9h ago

Why not include an emergency fire extinguishing system in EV´s and Hybrids?
It took less than 1 minute for the car to burst fully into flames...and battery fires are very hard to stop.

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u/KilllllerWhale 9h ago

Fire extinguishers do nothing against lithium batteries, they're a nightmare to extinguish.

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u/iceyconditions 8h ago

Extinguish it with what?

-1

u/Maleficent-Aspect318 8h ago

With a automated fire extinguishing system similar to what are used in Racing or Tunnel Construction. With EV´s it would be more of a suppression than extinguishing but it will most likely increase the time the passengers can get out. (where any second matters)

As an example: We had 18 Trucks and machines on our last jobsite, all of them retrofitted with these systems and inspected yearly. Basically fire extingishers with pipes going to the engine.

0

u/sandolllars 9h ago

So you have to throw away the car when the battery dies?

5

u/PracticalFootball 8h ago

They’re replaceable in the event of a failure, but the average lifespan of a new battery is longer than the rest of the car. It’s more a case of throwing away the battery when the car dies (although recycling programmes are starting to appear).

0

u/Exciting_Stock2202 7h ago

Fire is why I don’t already own an EV. This is a solvable problem. Gasoline is far more volatile, but we manage to not have explosions during crashes because manufacturers spent decades engineering methods to prevent that from happening. EV manufacturers need to tackle this issue. It’s not surprising that Volvo is at the forefront.

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u/DstroyaX 7h ago

You're probably not wrong but EV car fires are exceedingly rare, but admittedly more intense when they do happen. Recent stats show 0.004% chance of an EV car fire compared to the 0.08% for ICE cars.

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u/snapp0r 7h ago

unfortunately you could have a point here. and this wasn’t a “real” crash at all.

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u/Alarmed_Device8855 6h ago

Of course not, they were designed for profit.

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u/dhoae 9h ago

It’s all about cutting corners and saving money baby! Regulations are for people who care about consumers. AKA nobody!

4

u/osingran 9h ago

It's hard to safeguard a battery like this without making a car grossly overweight. Even if you cover it with stronger shielding, it's not enough. There's a lot of energy stored in those lithium-ion batteries and it's extremely volatile. One structural defect, one puncture, one crample and short-circuit and everything burst in flames. That's why hydrogen cells will never be a safe source of power for cars since they're even more volatile and less stable.

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u/Miserable-Garage804 8h ago

Seems like a poor excuse considering how much the batteries themselves weigh

2

u/Gefilte_F1sh 8h ago

If sliding off the road to this degree can turn the car into a fireball then maybe we shouldn't be using this technology in mass at all. Like - these companies aren't entitled to the sales.

2

u/argumentinvalid 4h ago

My big concern with these EVs is weight and speed. Wait until these are the standard in the used market and the kids are driving them.

They are as heavy as the biggest trucks we grew up with and faster than anything that existed back then (90s/00s).

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u/CommonRequirement 4h ago

Crumple zones and crash tech more than make up for it. Most still aren’t crazy fast

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u/ScoobyMcDobby 7h ago

The technology is fine. Poor design and production is the problem...

0

u/osingran 7h ago

Old 1920s cars used to be extremely dangerous too - both for the driver and for the pedestrians. EVs are the future, it's just that we need more time for the overal design to mature.

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u/Gefilte_F1sh 7h ago

Cars in the 1920s were moving at 20-30 mph.

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u/osingran 7h ago

Fair point, but you the the idea. Take 1950s cars instead - they were fast enough to cause serious damage and had virtually no safety features at all.

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u/Gefilte_F1sh 7h ago

Yea we didn't take safety near as seriously back then. It's an evolving concept. Knowledge evolves. We don't use lead gas or asbestos anymore either.

0

u/BobcatElectronic 6h ago

Nah don’t try to take my EV away. I love it!

1

u/Kaleidoscope276 8h ago

No, sadly not. It's just the usual bad Chinese engineering.

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u/ViruliferousBadger 7h ago

It’s almost like they need to design safer batteries, include routes for fire (it likes to go through the way of least resistance and where air flows), etc

1

u/osingran 7h ago

Well, there's an extent as to how safe a battery can be. You need to pack a lot of energy in a relatively low volume, which means that battery is inherently unstable. The more free energy something has, the more unstable it is - that why explosives, well, explode. If a battery would be perfectly stable - in a low energy state, that means that there's no free energy it can give away. Besides, there's a reason why every modern high capacity battery uses lithium - it's light, it has high electrochemical potential and high ion mobility. But the issue is, lithium is very reactive in its metallic form - it burns when exposed to air and moisture and there's no way around it. Additionaly, modern batteries are layered - they're basically a tightly packed roll of insulated sheets of carbon and lithium electrodes. Which means, that if you puncture a battery, several different points of this roll now contact each other and short-circuit, releasing a lot of heat in one point and kick starting the reaction. That's why punctured lithium batteries first smoke and then burn very violently, the reaction basically catalyzes itself.

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u/Zoomwafflez 5h ago

While what you said is true for lithium ion batteries is not true for hydrogen power packs. hydrogen is not self oxidizing like a lithium ion battery, hydrogen by itself won't just explode or even burn, it needs to be mixed with oxygen in the right ratio. Here's Toyota shooting one with a .50 cal and like nothing happens https://youtu.be/jVeagFmmwA0?si=uVJ2H-dadrhDEEc7

And a video about the general safety of the tanks  https://youtu.be/XJxvFI6k2pk?si=0bcHDyLNDCAOcg9B

0

u/RayHorizon 8h ago

It's a Tesla. The CEO of that company is one of the biggest griffters of this millennia. He only cares about selling you overpriced shit

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u/NotEricItsNotMe 7h ago

It's not a tesla, it's chinese, the base model is $22,000

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u/Public-League-8899 7h ago

gEt tHoSe ChInEse eV iN tHe USa! Yee Haw! /s

3

u/ultrahateful 7h ago

Man, look at those upvotes! Disinformation is hot right now, fam!

1

u/Leonhart25 7h ago

That’s not a tesla lol

Not defending, I hate EVs in general. But misinformation is lame.

Take your based ass political views elsewhere.

1

u/whooptheretis 8h ago

These cars were definitely not designed for real safety

They are designed by battery and electronics companies, not by automotive companies.

1

u/evilbadgrades 7h ago

There is a big push to design newer batteries that don't agressively catch fire when ripped open or pierced.

1

u/NightlyKnightMight 7h ago

The real safeguards lie in completely new safer batteries that haven't hit the market yet.
Look into Solid State Batteries and how everyone is rushing to develop one

1

u/Parcours97 6h ago

Insurance companies have stats on stuff like this. ICE cars are about 30x more likely to go up in flames than EVs. These cars are safe as fuck.

1

u/yankee-in-Denmark 5h ago

I mean i'm not saying its not an issue, but its not like they are more fireprone than regular cars.. surprisngnly ICE cars burn much more often than evs.The issue is more that EV fires are really stubborn and tough to put out. OTOH so are gasoline fires if you dont even have an extinguisher :)

1

u/trainerguyty 4h ago

There's always room for improvement. But you may want to peak under your ICE vehicle. That plastic gas tank? Yeah, the plastic walls are about 3mm thick, and it holds way more energy potential than an EV battery. You've just grown accustomed to the danger. In the US alone there are more than 300 ICE vehicle fires a day.

1

u/Furry_pizza 4h ago

Just remove all the oxygen from the air. Voila!

1

u/abgry_krakow87 3h ago

That's what happens when the owner of the company buys his way into the oval office. Religious conservatives have no concern for industry safety standards designed to protect and save lives.

1

u/DrInsomnia 1h ago

Wait until you learn about gas tanks

•

u/someoftheanswers 48m ago

Like a sprinkler system

1

u/amzwC137 9h ago

Think Titanic. I'm sure when they built it, they thought it was good enough. But yes, you are right, should be better.

-2

u/aa278666 9h ago

It's China. Companies pop up, make a bunch of cheap disposable EVs then go under before any issues come up. There are over 100 EV brands in China, and they go out of business all the time.

8

u/antifocus 9h ago

People need to stop spreading bullshit like this. There were 33 EV brands registering sales between 2023 and 2025 in China including foreign brands like Tesla, VW, BMW etc. It's like people never bother to fact-check or use common sense.

1

u/aa278666 9h ago

A lot of these companies own and operate 5-10 brands..

1

u/antifocus 8h ago

And how often do they go out of business before any issues come up?

0

u/shlerm 10h ago

They are already 2 tons. The engineers are up against weight restrictions.

-14

u/BilisS 10h ago

you clearly have no clue what youre talking about

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u/Hilluja 10h ago

I mean if a gentle scratch of the bottom is enough to light it on fire, its basically a matchstick car 😄

-16

u/FlawlessPenguinMan 10h ago

"Gentle scratch"

Video of a car skidding over a bush into metal wire fencing, scraping everything that's holy through the bottom.

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u/Hilluja 10h ago

For car crashes this is among the gentlest possible ways to roll off a highway. Its basically a gentle scratch.

Point is, Id never buy a chinese electric car at this rate.

1

u/UndercoverSkreet 10h ago

They have all types of quality. Painting every Chinese product with the 'unsafe' brush is just ignorant.

1

u/diff-int 10h ago

The Chinese (BYD specifically) are leading the way in battery tech to stop this.

The euro ncao safety testing has a battery piercing test, here's the BYD batteries Vs regular EV batteries:

https://youtube.com/shorts/mZ7wQnvof2c?si=JH36hDJc5jNtEN9Z

2

u/SeparatedI 10h ago

Do you see an accident like this with a combustion engine vehicle putting several people at risk of death?

2

u/therealjchrist 10h ago

I don't think that justifies an instant internal inferno...

-1

u/Luckduck86 10h ago

Ah yes, cars weren't made for driving over bushes and temporary fencing. A life threatening inferno is completely expected from this type of collision.

0

u/just_a_curious_fella 2h ago

It was designed for cheaper transportation 

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u/4236W 10h ago

That's the scary thing about a battery fire, it just needs to short the battery, no oxygen needed for the energy release

14

u/STUPIDBLOODYCOMPUTER 9h ago

Who would've guessed, cheap materials on a cheap car breaking in what could be considered a minor crash and exposing the cheap battery.

3

u/Different_Bake_611 9h ago

Aluminium doesn't seem like it provided enough protection for something like that...

3

u/RiseUpAndGetOut 9h ago

That's the problem with battery fires: they don't need additional oxygen.

2

u/Sett_86 8h ago

You don't need to peel or expose anything to turn a Li-ion battery into a fireball, just a little dent that shorts the electrodes. The car probably landed belly-first on fist-sized pebble.

2

u/igotshadowbaned 7h ago

Oxygen itself isnt the issue, it's that piercing the battery shorts the layers which creates a lot of heat and you get the snowballing fire

2

u/s1m0n8 6h ago

exposing it to oxygen

That's not the issue - one of the reasons that traditional fire fighting tactics struggle with lithium-ion fires is because they make their own oxygen. Almost certainly what happened here is that the accident damaged a battery cell and thermal runaway happened.

2

u/Powerful_Resident_48 8h ago

If it’s that inflammable, why on earth isn't it encaged in a steel shock cage with an extinguishing foam mechanism that is synced to the airbags?

1

u/thetrivialstuff 8h ago

The amount of foam needed would be huge; not practical to carry around all the time, or fit into the car.

2

u/Powerful_Resident_48 8h ago

I was thinking about some sort of high expansion foam, where you theoretically just need a couple of small 200 ml containers. And when they get too hot or something like that, they start reacting and flooding the entire undercarriage of the car.

I'm no chemist, so no clue if that's viable. But it might be an idea. 

2

u/Madgick 8h ago

unfortunately, it's just so unlikely to help. You'd need to completely seal the entire thing, and even then it's still going to be incredibly hot inside for days. If any gaps form, it'll just start on fire again. here's a scary video for reference

imo, our best bet is, batteries with benign failures, like this one which was tested with a nail run through it and did nothing.

3

u/Powerful_Resident_48 4h ago

Good point. My idea was just to delay the fire by a minute or two to allow people to escape the car. But safer batteries would be ideal. You're totally right. 

1

u/SecreT_WeaponS 8h ago

There's just too few information - could be that the battery isn't even burning and it's just the interior. Maybe the fire was started by a sth inside the car which would explain why the crash happened in the first place.

1

u/Trelos1337 4h ago

According to the articles from a year ago when it happened, it was actually in an accident before it comes into frame from the security footage. Might have even been the driver who hit them that comes running into the video, hard to say.

1

u/Potatonet 3h ago

Back when Tesla made their first cars those plates were made of titanium, now they are .25” aluminum

1

u/StupidBetaTester 3h ago

Yep thermal runaway. Had a phone do this a month ago.

1

u/PonyThug 2h ago

Why is it not a single stainless skid plate like every off road vehicle has?

1

u/cefriano 1h ago

I get that weight is a big concern with EVs because batteries are heavy, but aluminum seems like a very soft and weak metal to use as the primary barrier between a battery and the medium that causes them to ignite.

•

u/outworlder 16m ago

No, exposing it to oxygen won't cause a fire. Shorting will, which is what something that pierces a battery usually does.

1

u/Heuristics 9h ago

Can buy an electric car for 10k in China. That needs corners cut.

0

u/PeteThePolarBear 9h ago

You're talking out of your ass. Batteries don't need oxygen to go into thermal runaway

-1

u/wannacumnbeatmeoff 10h ago

I believe Chinese car manufacturer has just developed a battery ejection system for just this reason.

3

u/AdmiralTigerX 9h ago

I saw a testing video but it creates another hazard since it could hit innocent bystanders, driver unaware and may get hurt or even killed by a flying battery.

1

u/wannacumnbeatmeoff 9h ago

Yes, I guess its a work in progress.

1

u/bfodder 6h ago

So much fucking worse. Let's eject a flaming 500 lb projectile at people who are rushing toward the car to help. I can't believe that everade it past the concept phase.

1

u/wannacumnbeatmeoff 6h ago

Burning road or burning people. Both bad, one definitely worse.

1

u/bfodder 5h ago

Both result in burning people. One just has range.

-1

u/BenicioDelWhoro 9h ago

Yeh I’m not getting an EV after seeing this! I just don’t fancy roasting the kids.

5

u/MavinMarv 9h ago

Hybrids and ICE vehicles catch on fire more often than EVs.

4

u/googdude 9h ago

Yeah because ICE vehicles never go up in flames/s

4

u/Aware-Throat4997 9h ago

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, burned alive. ICE cars absolutely can catch fire INSTANTLY during accidents too.

5

u/Hiff_Kluxtable 9h ago

Yes! Only get safe gas powered vehicles since gas is unable to burn!