While nobody’s stepped forward to claim this build, it appears to be a relatively well-known project cooked up by YouTuber Rich Rebuilds. This electric side-by-side UTV with Legacy EV battery modules and a Netgain Motors Hyper 9 motor is a really cool concept. Side-by-sides are awesome at going over rough terrain and electric power should help reduce disturbance to nature compared to a gasoline-powered engine. Unfortunately, something happened that led to an evacuation from the SEMA show floor. Perhaps it’s the slow, nonchalant manner in which this smoking UTV is being pushed that’s most eyebrow-raising. Should lithium-ion batteries enter the late stages of thermal runaway, the show would have a very big problem on its hands, so to see a guy with a water bottle in hand steadily pushing this thing through the hall feels a bit strange. Once outside, it doesn’t appear to take long for big plumes of smoke to emerge from the UTV, with the vehicle itself resisting firefighters’ attempts to put it out. Then again, a few little fire extinguisher puffs likely won’t do much against an EV battery fire, so I’m not entirely sure what the plan was when it came to extinguishing this thermal event.
It’s worth noting that unlike Bert McCracken or a DiGiorno left in the oven for far too long, electric vehicles aren’t really fire-prone, so to speak. As long as everything’s manufactured properly and the battery pack isn’t damaged, there isn’t much to worry about. However, should a battery pack be damaged or improperly manufactured, a fire could start from a short in the battery pack. If a battery fire breaks out in an electric vehicle, it requires a ton of water to put out and then must be stored well away from anything combustible because it’s entirely possible for lithium-ion cells to reignite well after they’re first damaged. If you want to learn more about EV fires, I highly suggest checking out our article on why flooded EVs can combust.
There aren’t many safeguards other than internal battery firewalls that can stop short-circuiting cells from flaming out of control, be it from improperly-manufactured cells or improper vehicle assembly or water intrusion. However, it’s worth noting that the UTV that let its smoke out at SEMA isn’t a production vehicle, so similar incidents are unlikely to occur at events like the New York International Auto Show. Hell, they’re pretty unlikely to occur at SEMA too, it just seems like the team behind this one UTV had one seriously bad time. As is obvious by this article, we don’t have a ton of context to go on, here. We’ve just got a few videos, though we’ve reached out to Rich Rebuilds to learn more. Lead photo credit: Screenshot of Jalopy Jeff/Youtube NMC cells release primarily steam and carbon when they fail, with some methane, ethylene, and ethane. (All chemical ingredients used in gasoline.) They release some hydrogen cyanide as well, but it is within the 1 hour exposure limit and breaks down after 48 hours. While that sounds scary, it is less lethal than many of the components of gasoline, and simply mixing with the air reduces it to near nothing in seconds. The firemen, however, do look a bit puzzled as to how they should proceed and just stand there for quite a bit discussing it, seemingly powerless; I would expect them to have pre-planned procedures for the various hazards they may face, and a showroom with more than a few experimental electric builds calls for a protocol for electrical fires. I get that even with protocol they have to make some decisions on the spot and should remain calm, but there’s a weird “hell if I know” vibe to their intervention. One of them isn’t even wearing any sort of gas mask and repeatedly goes into the smoke cloud like it’s nothing. Hopefully there’s good reason to why they acted like this, but boy does it look bad on camera. “If you can keep your head while all about are losing theirs You have not grasped the seriousness of the problem” The critical difference is that ICE vehicles, if parked and “cold”, generally don’t catch fire randomly and don’t undergo thermal runaway, which certain types of EV battery do. A quick release? Would bring new meaning to “Stop, drop, and roll” (substitute roll for frantically push the car body away from the released battery pack before it goes late-state runaway) Humans tend to fear new/unfamiliar things. The news media wants to give us whatever helps its bottom line. When you combine those tendencies in terms of car hazards, we get lots of stories about EV fires and comparatively few stories about ICE and hybrid car fires, making it seem that EV fires are more common than other car fires. “…in EV and hybrid vehicles, it seems to be mostly battery issues that can lead to fires, rather than electrical wiring issues” So the batteries on hybrids are more of an issue than the ICE system but ICE cars are more flammable? More than double the fire rate on hybrids vs ICE? The fact (I made up, but is likely true) that cars sold in the last 5 years break down at a lower rate than the average car would not be impressive to learn, but it carries about as much weight as that study. You can be skeptical about most nonscientific studies you see and their conclusions. Most are either flawed on accident or on purpose. The data here is likely true, but geeeezzzz is the interpretation horrible. Fellow RC enthusiast here. The cheap no-name lipo batteries are cheap for a reason. Chemistry issues, thin pouches, poorly soldered leads, etc. That said, I’ve put some quality packs through the wringer without issue so far.
