What Ford reassured everyone wouldn’t happen did.
While many media outlets have played down the recall of 18 Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks, there is a distinctly disturbing element to the story. In many news stories, the focus seems to be more on how few EV trucks the recall involved and the fact nobody has been hurt. But the recall demonstrates how large batteries in electric cars can pose an extreme fire risk.
Learn what can happen to flooded EVs here.
We know that despite it being a taboo topic among many media outlets, EV fires are a real concern. That’s probably in part why news of a Ford Lightning igniting while waiting in the factory quality control queue spread like crazy. The automaker got out in front of the story, assuring everyone that the manufacturing defect found in the batteries wasn’t present in any consumers’ trucks.
The problem was that wasn’t the truth. Thankfully, Ford didn’t try sweeping that fact under the rug when it realized 18 Lightnings with the battery manufacturing defect had actually been delivered to customers. Perhaps the company has learned a lesson from past mistakes, but still this situation still exposes a troubling potential future scenario.
After all, no automaker or any company can be perfect in catching manufacturing defects. Lemon vehicles exist which is why lemon laws have been created. When that defect involves a massive lithium-ion battery, the result can be an intense fire which could cost customers their house, if not their life, in a flash. This problem had to do with a short that occurred while the truck was being charged, like what people leave their EV in their garage to do at night while they’re asleep. How comforting.
There have been other instances of EVs catching fire, whether they’re charging, just sitting in a parking spot, or even being driven down the road. And while early adopters will just shrug this rather disturbing thing off while commenting that gas-powered cars catch on fire too, the public at large seems to be growing increasingly skeptical of electric vehicles.
With video of the Lightning fire released to the media recently, which is included, people can now see how badly burned the three EV trucks were, with the vehicle of origin looking quite melted, frame and all. This is why electric car fires are such a concern.
Source: The Detroit News
Images via Ford
