Flaming EVs Show Expertise Deficit

In the wake of Hurricane Idalia, there are reports of electric vehicles bursting into flames as a result of being flooded or otherwise exposed to salt water:

Some electric vehicles in Florida are bursting into flames after coming into contact with saltwater. Residual saltwater particles left behind on flooded batteries and battery components can conduct electricity, resulting in short circuits and eventual fires. Safety officials are urging EV owners with vehicles that flooded to take action now as fires can ignite weeks after flooding.

Among the actions-to-take? "[M]ove their EVs at least fifty feet away from any structure."

(!)

We didn't have much to worry about in our part of Florida this time, but I recall my EV-owning neighbor across the street having enough sense to evacuate for Ian last year -- by piling his family into a conventional SUV. (I stayed home, but evacuating was hardly a silly choice.)

We're safe from most storm surges here, but imagine evacuating to safety -- only to drive home to the burnt-out hulk of your former home because your garage flooded a little bit with an EV inside.

Conservative blog Hot Air asks:

An EV, parked safely away from other flammable objects. (Image by George Sargiannidis, via Unsplash, license.)

When Tesla, Ford, and everyone else were designing these vehicles, how did nobody anticipate this? Did it never occur to them that sometimes cars get wet? And if people live near the ocean, did anyone point out that they might be exposed to salt water, occasionally deep enough to come up to the wheel wells? ...

This is an understandable question, but may or may not be a fair one.

Why do I say this?

Recall that conventional automobiles have been in widespread use and under development for over a century. Granted, some of the first were electric, but they lost in the marketplace early on. So conventional "ICE" (internal combustion engine) cars have had a century to develop and for everyone to become familiar with their merits and drawbacks.

By contrast, electric vehicles are a new thing, and one cannot expect all the kinks to have been worked out in the same way as for regular cars, or for ordinary people to know how to react when things go wrong.

It is commonplace for climate catastrophists to claim that they are following "the science" -- while also pretending that the wholesale transformation of our energy sector is all but trivial. After all, "Just Stop Oil" is the name of one catastrophist organization.

But these actual (if small-scale) EV catastrophes demonstrate that it is anything but trivial to make such a change. Countless things that no one person can know or anticipate have to be factored in before a technology can become safe enough that we can use it without having to worry too much about it.

Electric cars are clearly not ready for this kind of use, and it is wrong to attempt to force mass adoption ahead of (or contrary to) demand and the natural timing of the marketplace.

And don't forget, it's not just cars that we're supposed to be able to just swap out overnight...

-- CAV