RE: And more Karma Fires, 16 exploded
Weird Fishes said:
According to the report on these fires, the that were sitting in port 'exploded' after being submerged in seawater. That would suggest to me that the seawater damaged the batteries and caused the explosions/fires. It seems highly unlikely that the most recent fire(s) were caused by parts related to the internal combustions engines.
We don't yet know that the battery packs were involved. "Exploded" sounds a bit like sensationalism to me, but there is a gas tank there. ICE cars catch fire fairly regularly due to electrical shorts. In fact there were at least a few car fires (from a regular ICE cars) due to this storm.
Here you have a bunch of Karmas parked close together. It may have been only one car that started the fire and the high winds spread it to the others. [hr]
pythagoras said:
Really doug why would you think this would be related to the two fires from recalled cooling fan short?
I didn't say it was related to the cooling fan fires, except to say that such a fire is possible from components in normal ICE cars. It doesn't necessarily have to be related to the battery, as the previous two fires have shown. Of course it's because the Karma has a battery that these fires get attention.
pythagoras said:
Too bad there weren't 16 Tesla Model S parked there too then we could have had a scientific experiment across lithium battery brands!
I too would be very interested to see how a Model S holds up to being submerged in saltwater. Back in 2007 Tesla described the Roadster battery pack as having
immersion sensors that should offer some protection in this kind of situation. I assume that carried over to the Model S, but don't know for sure. Any car submerged in saltwater is a total loss, though.
pythagoras said:
Doug you say you support Fisker as well as Tesla but you're always first to post the bad news?
Don't shoot the messenger. Can't say there's been a plethora of good news lately.