How Many EV Car Fires Are There a Year

The safety of electric vehicles (EVs) has been a topic of interest and debate, especially with the rapid growth of EV adoption worldwide. One of the primary concerns often raised is the occurrence of fires in these vehicles. Let’s delve deeper into the numbers to gauge the true risk.

Recent data released by China’s National Emergency Management Department highlights that in the first quarter of 2022, there were 640 EVsfires, marking a 32% increase from the same period in the previous year. Comparatively, the overall increase in transportation-related fires was about 8.8%, indicating that the growth rate for EVsfires significantly surpassed the average.

To contextualize this, let’s take a step back and examine historical data. In 2019, based on national regulatory platform analytics, China had an EV fleet of 3.81 million vehicles with 187 fire incidents. This represented a fire incident rate of 0.0049%, which is notably lower than the 0.01% to 0.02% probability for gasoline-powered vehicles. By 2020, the fire incident rate for EVs had further decreased to 0.0026%, still below the rates for traditional vehicles. Although data for 2021 is missing, the 2022 figures show that with 8.915 million EVs, the fire incident rate was 0.007%, continuing to be lower than that of gasoline-powered vehicles.

A comprehensive vehicle safety survey by Sun Fengchun, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, corroborated these findings. According to his research, the fire incident rate for EVs stood at 0.9-1.2 per 10,000 vehicles, which is significantly lower than the 2-4 per 10,000 vehicles rate for gasoline vehicles.

Thus, in terms of the probability of fire incidents, EVs are much safer than their gasoline counterparts. However, the perception of higher risk might be due to the heightened curiosity and interest in EVs. The media tends to spotlight EV-related topics more frequently, leading to greater public attention and, sometimes, a skewed perception.

In conclusion, while the number of fire incidents in EVs has shown an increase, the overall probability remains lower than that of traditional gasoline vehicles. Public perception is often influenced by media focus, but it’s essential to differentiate between perception and reality when making informed decisions about vehicle safety.