Volvo plug-in bursts into flames while charging

Read all about it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-43737982
Should we be worried (I've never heard of a Mitsi thus afflicted) or just enjoy the schadenfreude?

Don't know what current the XC90 pulls, but even the 16 amps at 240 volts we use can be liable to cause fire if there's a poor connection anywhere along the line. It's equivalent to a 4kW electric fire, and there's plenty of house fires been caused by a lot less. Just hope everything is tight, and correct in our installations!

Throw a short across a Li-Ion battery and it will burn rather nastily, even explode. I have no idea what happened here, but accidents do happen - even to Volvos.

I guess anything can happen at any time. But in saying that I feel quite secure charging at home with the standard charger and nothing gets warm/overheated/overloaded. (240v, 7.45amp)

Two interesting things - it was the engine compartment the burnt out, not the battery, and the owner has a battery recycling company.

jaapv said:

Two interesting things - it was the engine compartment the burnt out, not the battery, and the owner has a battery recycling company.

Click to expand...

Yes .. hard to ignore that the guy has a recycling battery company .. but I guess he may only recycle Lead Acid Battery ... so 99.99% this has nothing to do with the accident.

I don't know the Volvo PHEV ... but possibly there AC to DC charger is located on the front of the car ... so possibly this is the unit that got on fire ... maybe also due to some dirt of oil leakage from then engine ..

Anyhow ... I feel quite safe with my PHEV ..
.. but if mine will catch fire while parked overnight .. I doubt I will be able to report this event here ... I'm parking next to an additional wood construction in front of my garage, which I store under some pellets and coal used in the winter for support the heating system ... between the wood construction, the flammable material , and some part of the house with some wood in the structure ... once a fire will start there is no way to stop it ... as well ... here fire fighters are not reacting in very short time ... one of my neighbor got his house on fire and I assisted some scaring huge flames and his house got totally burned down ... fire fighter arrived over 30min later and they did look hopeless in their operation .. luckily nobody gut hurt and fire did not spread around