Lessons from the Electric Vehicle Crashworthiness Leading to Battery Fire

Pius Victor Chombo, Yossapong Laoonual and Somchai Wongwises
Additional contact information
Pius Victor Chombo: The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand
Yossapong Laoonual: Mobility & Vehicle Technology Research Center (MOVE), King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand
Somchai Wongwises: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-21

Abstract: Electric vehicles (EVs) are currently emerging as alternative vehicles due to their high energy efficiency and low emissions during driving. However, regarding the raising concern, the safety of EVs can further be improved before they completely replace conventional vehicles. This paper focuses on reviewing the safety requirements of EVs, especially those powered by Li-ion battery, based on the mechanical abuse tests from the international standards, national standards, regulations and other laboratories standards, and safety of occupants from the regulations and safety programs. Moreover, the publicly reported real-world fire incidents of EVs based on road crashes were collected and reviewed. The objective is to highlight the gap and challenges arose between the current safety requirements and real-world fire incidents of EVs and provide the way for assisting the future research in the area of EV safety, particularly light duty passenger vehicle. The serious challenges observed include high impact speed, multi-crashes per incident, multiple barriers of different types involved in the accident, and post-crash safety (serious injury and demise) of occupants and rescue teams. While addressing these challenges, this review will aid researchers and manufacturers working in batteries, EVs, and fire safety engineering to narrow the gap and enhance the safety of future EVs in areas of battery materials, fire extinguishing, and vehicle’s body structure.

Keywords: electric vehicle; crashworthiness; EVs’ fire incidents; safety programs; regulations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/16/4802/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/16/4802/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:16:p:4802-:d:609962

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().