Ford F-150 Lightning hearth video highlights rising EV threat

DEARBORN, Mich. — New video footage of a fireplace involving a Ford F-150 Lightning this yr highlights a rising concern round electrical autos: risky fires from the batteries that energy them.

The beforehand unreleased footage, which CNBC obtained by means of Michigan’s Freedom of Info Act from the Dearborn Police Division, exhibits smoke billowing from three tightly packed electrical pickups in a Ford Motor holding lot in Dearborn, Michigan.

Moments later, flames shoot a number of toes above the autos, which have been unoccupied. It wasn’t clear based mostly on public paperwork and police video how lengthy the fires burned. Specialists say EV fires can take hours, slightly than minutes, to extinguish.

EV fires have turn out to be a rising concern as automakers push to extend gross sales of electrical autos and meet tightening emissions requirements.

The Biden administration has set a goal for half of recent autos bought within the U.S. by 2030 to be electrical. Automakers are spending billions of {dollars} to affect their lineups. Nevertheless, there’s been little to no dialogue about first responder coaching for when the autos catch hearth, whether or not attributable to a malfunction or, extra generally, a crash.

The Feb. 4 holding lot hearth at Ford’s Rouge Electrical Car Heart in Dearborn prompted the corporate to rapidly halt manufacturing of the brand new pickup for 5 weeks. The automaker additionally recalled 18 of the autos, which Ford has likened to the Mannequin T by way of significance to the corporate.

Ford recognized the basis trigger as associated to battery cell manufacturing made by provider, SK On.

Cops responding to the blaze described the autos as being “engulfed in flames” and might be heard on video worrying that the autos might “blow up.” Lithium-ion batteries, generally utilized in EVs, might be risky and very troublesome to place out as soon as on hearth.

“We’re not placing this f—er out. Take a look at it,” mentioned one responding officer through the February F-150 Lightning hearth.

First responders might be heard on video expressing concern about how a lot water is required to place out EV fires and whether or not a particular foam could be required. In addition they questioned the viability and security of electrical autos.

“They must put like a complete f—ing lake on it to place them out,” the identical officer mentioned through the Feb. 4 occasion.

The footage obtained by CNBC totaled about two hours of video, together with overlapping footage, from 17 police bodycams and car dashcams between 3:36 p.m. and 4:22 p.m. ET, based on time stamps on the bodycam movies.

Pictures obtained from Dearborn Police by means of a separate Michigan FOIA request present the aftermath of the blaze. One of many three autos is barely recognizable, with its physique practically melted all the way down to the bottom. The 2 neighboring autos have been additionally closely broken.

“There was just one [vehicle on fire] after we bought right here. They’re catching. It is these frickin’ batteries,” that very same responding officer mentioned, based on the footage.

The F-150 Lightning hearth occurred whereas the car was charging in a holding lot throughout a pre-delivery high quality examine and was brought on by an inside brief circuit attributable to a producing problem when cells within the battery have been at a excessive state of cost, based on public paperwork related to the recall. Ford mentioned engineers decided there was no proof of a charging fault.

“Along with SK On, we confirmed the basis causes and swiftly carried out high quality actions,” Ford mentioned in a press release to CNBC. “The Rouge Electrical Car Heart has been again up and working since March 13 and is again to full manufacturing and delivery autos to prospects.”

The fireplace added to ongoing high quality and execution points which have plagued the automaker because it makes an attempt to restructure its enterprise and place itself higher for EVs.

Car fires usually are not new. They commonly happen in conventional autos with inside combustion engines. However the fires that may consequence from EVs such because the F-150 Lightning and their batteries are more and more worrying for first responders throughout the nation, partially as a result of they contain a sequence response between battery cells often called thermal runaway.

Such fires are also a rising downside for automakers who might lose the momentum they’ve constructed with automotive consumers and climate-conscious lawmakers if the danger continues shaking public confidence within the expertise.

Fires involving EV batteries can burn hotter and longer and require new methods to extinguish.

A report from the Dearborn Fireplace Division, which responded to the February Lightning hearth, mentioned one of many autos was decided to be “un-extinguishable” and firefighters needed to contact a colleague with “experience in EV expertise” on what to do.

“This can be a large problem globally,” mentioned Michael O’Brian, board member of the Worldwide Fireplace Chiefs Affiliation, who leads hearth and life security. “We have to higher perceive what the most effective processes are by means of testing and analysis with actual firefighters.”

EVs are powered by a sequence of battery cells inside an hermetic pack that is designed to forestall any substances from passing in or out. The packs are also primarily constructed into the underbodies or frames of the autos, a spot that may be troublesome for first responders to achieve. And even when they might simply entry the cells, the “hearth” is definitely a chemical response and far tougher to deal with than a standard gasoline hearth.

“You are now coping with a car that does not work like anything you’ve got been taught,” mentioned David Dalrymple, a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey who owns a primary response coaching and consulting enterprise referred to as RoadWay Rescue. “It is a completely totally different animal. … The first aim is to chill it down to remove that chemical response.”

Dalrymple, who additionally serves on a Society of Automotive Engineers committee specializing in EV hearth points and requirements, famous another international locations permit first responders to lookup what hazardous supplies are in a car based mostly on the license plate. An identical system could possibly be helpful within the U.S., he mentioned.

Specialists are nonetheless attempting to find out EV hearth incident charges; the information is troublesome to gather from disparate hearth departments. Car fires involving inside combustion engines are much more frequent than EVs, nevertheless consultants count on that to repeatedly even out as extra electrified autos are bought. 

Issues with plug-in autos that use such batteries have led automakers together with Ford, Common Motors, Hyundai and Porsche to recall fashions. GM from 2020 to 2021 needed to recall all of its electrical Chevrolet Bolt fashions constructed as much as that time attributable to a battery problem that resulted in a number of reported fires.

Consequently, GM expanded an ongoing nationwide program to teach public security, hearth and emergency service suppliers on the way to most successfully deal with emergency conditions involving electrical autos.

The state of Virginia has taken it upon itself to coach firefighters. A invoice that requires them to finish a coaching program in regards to the threat of electrical car fires handed unanimously this yr.

Firefighters more and more are dealing with the challenges created by EV fires. That is made extra difficult by what some consultants say is a scarcity of rules and requirements, which permits automakers to do as they like concerning the design and rollout of EVs.

For greater than a century, first responders have fairly simply extinguished car engine fires by popping the hood and drowning the world in water. That playbook would not work with EVs.

Every car is exclusive and should require totally different methods to extinguish, which implies there aren’t any set requirements for placing out an EV hearth.

Present finest practices for an EV hearth, relying on who you converse with, embody submerging the autos in water, piercing the battery pack and inundating it with water, disabling a car’s 12-volt circuit, or just letting the hearth burn till it is out, emitting chemical toxins into the air.

O’Brian, a fireplace chief in suburban Brighton exterior of Detroit, mentioned the larger the battery, the upper the priority for first responders. He additionally famous that new battery vegetation to supply the cells for the autos usually value billions of {dollars}, highlighting what he noticed as comparatively little funding being directed to the coaching of fireside departments.

Ford, in its Emergency Response Information for the 2022 Lightning, broadly particulars some points in regards to the potential for reignition within the occasion of a fireplace and suggests storing the car exterior or at the least 50 toes away from different objects. It doesn’t supply an answer for placing out a battery hearth aside from “LARGE quantities of water” or utilizing a “Class ABC powder-type extinguisher to include and smother the flames.”

Ford mentioned the corporate “took half in an information-sharing session on the way to deal with battery fires in summer time 2022 with members of the Dearborn hearth division.”

“We proceed to have a look at alternatives to assist educate on this subject,” the automaker mentioned.

Dearborn Police Chief Joseph Murray declined to remark in regards to the Feb. 4 F-150 Lightning hearth or any coaching his division has carried out for EVs.

Specialists say such coaching for first responders is a begin, but it surely must be always up to date and rolled out. There are additionally considerations in regards to the manpower and skill of fireside departments to deal with EV fires, based on a number of officers. To not point out the dire circumstances they might be coping with involving car occupants, that are their first precedence.

“When you will have an EV hearth, you do not have the time to cease and look by means of an emergency response information or to name, , GM, or methodically determine is it a 2012 Tesla or 2022,” Lerner mentioned. “You have bought human beings in there that may die. So, it’s possible you’ll not have one second to waste as a way to get these human beings out.”

— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.