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California sells more electric cars than any other state, many of which in Southern California were reduced to rubble during the recent Los Angeles wildfires. And while the lithium-ion batteries present in EVs do not often burst into flames, when they do produce fires that are extremely hot and take significant water to extinguish. When the fires are extinguished, they will leave a lot of toxic waste to clean up. It’s a new headache and presents an irony about electric cars – the very things that are supposed to help the environment are burned by a fire started by global warming, and the batteries leave more damage to the environment.
According to data from S&P Global cited by BloombergThere were more than 431,000 Teslas in operation in the Los Angeles area as of October 2024. That does not include vehicles from other brands.
EV vehicle fires can take over tens of thousands of liters of water to put out, because the lithium-ion inside the batteries can create oxygen when it burns, which means much more water is needed to cool the burning pack. Tesla publishes guides for fire departments that instruct them on how to put out fires from their vehicles. General Motors delivered first four-hour training sessions for first responders on how to stop the stubborn fire that won’t go out.
Electric vehicles come with a host of unique disadvantages to consider – they are often very heavy, pose problems for road infrastructure, for example, and charging a lot of EVs can put pressure on electric utilities. These are some of the reasons why some urban dwellers are opposed to EVs altogether, arguing that people in cities should use public transport if they really want to support a green future. They come with contradictions.
Bloomberg talked to a firefighter about how previous fires in Maui gave him a game plan for cleaning batteries in Southern California:
San Diego Fire Chief Robert Rezende, a specialist in the dangers of lithium batteries who will assist in the cleanup effort, said protocols developed during the 2023 fires in Maui will be used in Los Angeles. But the scale of this event, and the dangers, are larger magnitudes.
“The state has seen other fires, but nothing like this urban, with so many neighborhoods and structures where you’d expect to see more electric vehicles and other energy storage systems,” Rezende said. “We’re anticipating a pretty big lift.”
In Maui, the Environmental Protection Agency shipped more than 30 tons of lithium batteries from more than 1,400 properties for recycling.
Electric vehicle fires are very rarewith the National Transportation Safety Board finding about 25 fires for every 100,000 electric vehicles sold.
Electric motors don’t generate much heat, so fires most often occur in serious accidents when a battery breaks and the sensitive chemicals and elements inside become unstable, releasing heat and then creating a self-sustaining cycle for heat uncontrollably. Of course, high heat from an external source such as a wildfire can also cause the battery to heat up.
Unfortunately, because electric vehicles have massive battery packs, there will now be a lot of toxic waste to dispose of and try to recycle. The rain could cause toxic pollutants to reach the ocean if they are not cleaned up in time.
To be sure, countless studies show that the life cycle emissions of electric vehicles will be 70% lower than petrol or dieselalso counting for mineral extraction or loading. Unless you lean on the more extreme end of the spectrum and think cars should be done away with altogether, EVs are still probably better than alternative gas options.
