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Numerous plug-in electric vehicle fire incidents have taken place since the introduction of mass-production plug-in electric vehicles. As a result of these incidents, the United States Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducted a study in 2017 to establish whether lithium-ion batteries in plug-electric vehicles pose an exceptional fire hazard. The research looked at whether the high-voltage batteries can cause fires when they are being charged, and when the vehicles are involved in an accident.
Regarding the risk of electrochemical failure, report concludes that the propensity and severity of fires and explosions from the accidental ignition of flammable electrolytic solvents used in Li-ion battery systems are anticipated to be somewhat comparable to or perhaps slightly less than those for gasoline or diesel vehicular fuels. The overall consequences for Li-ion batteries are expected to be less because of the much smaller amounts of flammable solvent released and burning in a catastrophic failure situation.
The NHTSA in 2021 opened a new Battery Safety Initiative investigation into ev car fires in light of the continuing numerous fire incidents.
They were thermal runaway incidents related to the lithium-ion batteries. The brands involved were the Zotye M300 EV, Chevrolet Volt, Fisker Karma, Dodge Ram 1500 Plug-in Hybrid, Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Outlander P-HEV.