Electric cars on fire

British Company Develops Fire Truck Specifically Designed To Extinguish Electric Vehicle And Car Park Fires

Although electric vehicles are statistically less likely to catch fire than an internal combustion engine car, incidents involving a lithium-ion battery can be far more serious and difficult to extinguish — especially if in an enclosed space which large fire engines cannot access.

Once a battery pack has been compromised by an accident or external fire, it can be difficult to tackle the resulting blaze as the energy contained with the cells is released. Previous ways of preventing this or fighting the fire involve extreme measures such as immersing the entire car in water for days in large bags or shipping containers.

rapid intervention vehicle which can deliver the crew and equipment to locations where height may be limited, such as car park structures.

Industry specialists have cooperated to develop a new generation of fire fighting vehicles developed specifically to fight both conventional and electric vehicle fires in car parks at the early stages — wherever the location.

Hiload 6x6

The basis of the Rapid Intervention Vehicle is the British-built HILOAD, engineered by Prospeed Motorsport in York, England. Its engineering led approach uses a Toyota Hilux as a donor, fitted with an entirely new chassis to avoid a compromised ‘cut and shut’ of the original frame.

With the replacement chassis and a torque splitter system, the 6x6 has rated 5600kg gross vehicle weight, which offers 3000kg payload. That’s almost triple the standard 4x4 Hilux’s capacity, and the loadspace is also extended by 1230mm.

Although longer, The HILOAD’s height is just 1850mm — less than some large SUVs and low enough to allow access to the majority of parking structures. It also results in a lower centre of gravity and better stability in high-speed manoeuvres.

Among the other equipment which the increased payload helps carry, the HILOAD can be fitted with the Coldcut Cobra system for extinguishing EV battery fires.

The Cobra Ultra High Pressure Lance (UHPL) system uses an abrasive suspended in water to pierce a hole through floor pans and inject water at 300bar — more than 100 times the pressure of the air in a typical car tyre — throughout the module casing. This water cools directly inside the battery and thus prevents propagation and further possibility of a thermal runaway.

A HILOAD is currently being trialled in the Czech Republic, with the vehicle specifically developed to tackle EV battery fires and assist with fast response occupant extraction. It is already part of one EV car manufacturer’s firefighting fleet.