Courtesy of Zendo Deb at 357 Magnum blog, we find that the explosion and fire in the Port of Miami on November 29th was caused by previously water-damaged electric vehicles. This sub-5-minute video report contains all the essential details. Recommended viewing; and once you've watched it, I'll have a few more things to say about it.
First, kudos to the investigator for taking the time and trouble to track down all of the vehicles involved, including the damage they suffered during hurricane-induced floods earlier this year.
Next, consider his comments about how easy it is to modify damage documentation into salvage documentation - even a clean title. I don't know how many vehicles have come out of hurricane-damaged areas into parts of the USA where they could be re-registered without any indication that they'd been flooded, but I'm willing to bet it's more than a few. From my own experience during and after Hurricane Katrina, including discussions with law enforcement personnel, I'd say every such storm sees several thousand such vehicles sold to unknowing buyers in other states. In the case of electric vehicles, the danger of fire or explosion is exponentially greater than for fossil-fuel-powered examples. What if the vehicle that exploded had reached its destination, and been re-registered and sold, and had a mother with small children in it when it finally cooked off? That doesn't bear thinking about . . .
I think we all need to keep this firmly in mind when dealing with used or pre-owned electric or hybrid vehicles. The risk from flooding or battery damage is so great as to warrant extreme care in checking it out before committing to buying it.
Thanks, once again, to Zendo Deb for publishing that video. It's a very important lesson to all of us.
Peter
4 comments:
I used to carry a small flashlight with lithium batteries. I experienced a thermal runaway IN MY POCKET... NOTHING stays on the charger overnight or unattended in my perimeter. Maybe a 12V vehicle battery if its parked well away from everything flammable. (I have had problems charging those but it's very rare). Technology is great if it works reliably. Otherwise, not so much.
With the way vehicles are resold and moved around, it is wise to check the previous location of any vehicle within 2 years of major flooding (which means any vehicle since every year sees major flooding somewhere in the US).
When I lived in the Northeast, people would buy Florida cars and bring them up, advertising them as salt and rust free... The prices meant they had to be getting them cheap, so I assumed there were unadvertised problems with them.
Jonathan
I sold an older crown victoria to a company out of Miami a number of years ago. The firm exported them to the Dominican Republic for use as a taxi. In the case of mine they replaced the engine with another from a salvage vehicle as mine had 225,000 miles but a perfect body. I'm sure similar salvage is done to these.
For flood damaged vehicles the State(s) should require removal and scrapping of the high voltage batteries.
The worst state offender is Utah. I would never try to get a "deal" on a salvage title vehicle anyway, but Utah is by far the loosest state for those types of car dealers.
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