Charging an EV may be more expensive than you think...

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has this week asked owners of ‘ro-ro’ vessels – roll-on, roll-off car carriers such as ferries – to start planning for the possibility that an electric car onboard will one day spontaneously catch fire.

Sounds sensible. EV fires require different reactions to ICE fires. Still very rare though. 

Might happen. 
Though I suspect alternatives to a ban might be found

I didn't miss it, you didn't raise it. 
Yes I agree that though they are far less likely to catch fire when they do its a bigger issue. Further they are more likely to catch fire when being charged and unattended whereas ICE vehicles its usually when they are being driven. Both need separate measures. 
ICE vehicle fires often lead to road closures adding huge costs to them through lost time for hundreds of drivers. 
EV fires are at very high temperatures and difficult to extinguish, the current advice is to contain the fire and let them burn themselves out. Already they are looking at vehicle fire blankets to starve the fire of oxygen rather than trying to cool them with water.

The Fire at Luton airport was caused by a diesel car. 

This is interesting.

cleantechnica.com/2021/11/22/rosenbauer-introduces-new-firefighting-equipment-for-ev-battery-fires/
Rosenbauer thinks about new firefighting techniques all the time. While EVs are no more at risk of fires than a conventional car, battery fires are different than gasoline fires and require specialized equipment to put them out effectively.



Battery fires tend to be significantly hotter than gasoline fires. Today, most fire departments just pump copious quantities of water onto a burning electric car. The problem is, batteries are encased in a protective housing that is designed to be waterproof. See the problem?



Rosenbauer has developed new equipment for dealing with that problem. It consists of two components — an extinguishing unit and an operating unit, connected by water hoses. Firefighters place the extinguishing unit between the battery and the road if the EV is still on its wheels or attach it to the outside of the vehicle near the battery if the car is on its side or upside down on its roof.



The device is controlled from about 25 feet away. When activated, the extinguishing unit drives a mandrel with a piercing lance into the battery with a force of several tons, then sends water through the lance to flood the interior of the battery with water. The unit can be left attached to the battery during transport. As long as there is a supply of water, more can be forced into the battery compartment in case of re-ignition.



Rosenbauer says it has tested the system with factory, professional, and voluntary fire departments in Europe, and on different battery designs including pouch, prismatic, and cylindrical cells with good results. The equipment is designed to integrate with current fire department training and tactics.

For a start I didn't agree that EV's are less likely to catch fire than ICE cars. There's no data that demonstrates this. In particular the data on EVs is minimal because there are few around and they do low mileages. Also the problems with their fires is that they cause huge amounts of damage - like destroying nearby houses. And the information about the Luton fire is not yet clear. The FB say it's "thought to have been started by a diesel car" but there's not been any evidence of that yet. But one diesel car on fire doesn't destroy a whole multi-storey car park and all the cars in it.

Also a recent EV fire, which caused the destruction of the house it was parked outside was NOT being charged at the time. EV's are perfectly capable of spontaneous combustion. They're also capable of exploding when being charged or while being driven (both activities cause the battery to heat up). The problems with Li-ion batteries tend to increase with age - especially when they're subject to vibration or shock which is what happens with cars.

And the stuff about extinguishing the fires is also wrong. Li-ion batteries do NOT require oxygen to burn so starving them of oxygen doesn't work. The combustion of these batteries is a chemical reaction that will continue to occur until the battery is completely destroyed. During this process the temperatures can reach 5000C (about 5 times higher than a petrol fire). I've yet to read of any way of putting the fires out. Neither water nor oxygen deprivation seem to work - although water can control the temperature to a certain extent.

They're an accident waiting to happen zany. I just cannot understand why they were give approval given how dangerous they are. The only hope for BEVs is that solid state batteries can be made to work (and be affordable) but it still seems years away.