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Posted on 11/01/2012 2:41:23 AM PDT by Libloather
16 Fisker Karmas Caught Fire During The Hurricane
Alex Davies | Oct. 31, 2012, 11:07 AM
A lot of cars ended up underwater in areas flooded by Hurricane Sandy over the past two days. But for already troubled Fisker, things got worse: Approximately 16 Karmas in Port Newark, New Jersey were submerged, then caught fire.
A witness told Jalopnik the extended-range luxury hybrids were "first submerged in a storm surge and then caught fire, exploded."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The fed gov sells flood insurance to homes located in flood plains; we lived in a flood plain for 26 years and bought the insurance (NFIP).
“Consumer Reports Says The 2012 Fisker Karma Is The Most Troublesome Car It’s Ever Tested
” Lithium batteries. Lithium is a highly water reactive metal. That why you can’t throw them out in the trash. They set garbage trucks on fire. “
I’ll bet virtutaly none of the American public knows that. I sure didn’t.
looks like a Jaguar D to me
Sure adds an element of excitment to the weekly visit to the car wash.
I didn’t know that. Thanks!
I thought not throwing the batteries into the garbage was one of those “green” things. Recycle bin stuff.
I just thought batteries shouldn’t be thrown into a fire.
I thought batteries were just batteries. They’re charged or they’re dead.
Now I must see what kind of batteries I have and just stop thinking. LOL
I learned something today. Now I can go back to bed.
It’s not the chemistry, it’s the current. Salt water causes short circuits. I lithium ion battery can can generate massive currents and the heat that accompanies that. They will vaporise their surroundings.
:-D I can live with that most of the time. The clutch & the bending over for hours, not so much. (my knees got *remarkably* better after I got an automatic, but I still miss it)
Avoid car washes, don’t drive in heavy rains, don;t rip over extension cord.. safety hazards or what? and they’re Gubamint sanctioned?
Fisker Karma’s gonna get you...
UPS B-747, Sep 3, 2010, crew perished
Asiana B-747, Jul 28, 2011, crew perished
UPS DC-8, Feb 8, 2006, plane destroyed, crew survived
Emirates B-777, Jul 3, 2012, single laptop battery causes inflight cargo fire, no fatalities
More lithium battery fires near disasters...
Analysts predict battery fire aircraft crashes on average every other year
It is when the battery case is breached and the contents contact water. Search Youtube for “lipoly fire” or similar and you will see dramatic (and scary) examples. The different lithium battery chemistries do vary somewhat in their propensities to catch fire (looks like an explosion).
The proper way to dispose is to totally discharge the battery (to about zero volts) and then discard in trash. The discharge can be accompished by running leads from the postive and negative terminals into salt water and leaving for about ten days.
Overcharging, shorting and damage all can result in lithium battery fires (look like explosions).
A car submerged in salt water would effectively be a short: fire results.
And the vapors coming off the li reaction aren't particularly good to breath either.
Have to issue a clarification here: Discharge by normal methods as far as you can and then use the salt water method. This method applies to consumer type cells.
An individual cell or two isn’t going to explode from a salt water short, however. That is when you’ve got an entire bank shorted like in the car. Tremendous current there.
Here where I live we have a nice, large creek where people have always liked to fish and canoe. There are a lot of houses along the banks that are in the flood plain and during stretches of wet weather there have been houses that burned down while surrounded by water on all sides. The locals sometimes refer to this as,”The flood wire got across the insurance wire and the short circuit caused the fire.”
PS: Pure lithium is stored in oil and you can cut it with a knife it is that soft. It is the color of silver, a little darker.
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