In a previous post that went somewhat off topic, the subject of vehicle fires was mentioned. Over the years I have seen several petrol and diesel fuelled cars and trucks on fire for reasons other than having been in a collision. One memorable incident was when I was eating in a café in Goulburn when a VW Beetle parked outside the front window suddenly exploded in a ball of fire; rather put me off my pie and chips.

Then last Friday I was driving back into the ACT and when I turned off the Barton Hwy, I came across what I think was a Nissan Leaf on the other side of the road blazing away with clouds of silver/white smoke and showers of sparks. The Fire Brigade were in attendance in full Hazmat gear squirting foam over the car but it did not seem to be having much effect. Fortunately the vehicles ahead of me and myself were able to turn down a side road and get clear of the fumes. It only took about 30 seconds to leave the scene but I rather think the fire would have continued to burn for some considerable time.

Oddly there was no mention in the paper the next day but given that the local government lot are madly trying to flog the concept of EVs being 'emission free' it may have not been politically correct to admit that they burn like a Roman Candle. (Note that fireworks are banned in the Canberra because they frightened one of the local pollie's cat.)

Those Beetles had air-cooled engines which were made of a magnesium alloy. Such fires cannot be put out with water because the oxygenation will just excite the magnesium and make it burn hotter. The firies usually just watch and wait for the metal to vapourise. What the owner is usually left with is a crankshaft, four conrods and four semi-molten pistons with some minor parts still attached in some way.

The Leaf is an electric car and the sparks would have been coming from its lithium battery. Most electric car batteries exceed 10,000 volts.

The great lie about electric cars continues with a dash of political correctness added like salt and pepper. The term zero emissions has been cleansed and now reads as zero tailpipe emissions. After the emerging electric car industry was gently reminded some years ago that their cars run on coal, not batteries, they finally admitted it and inserted the word tailpipe - after all, it's hard to have tailpipe emissions when there isn't a tailpipe. The fact remains though that even when the car is working and not burning, it still emits smoke, just not directly.