There are thousands of gas car fires every year, yet all it takes is a handful of electric vehicle (EV) fires for each one to become front page headline news. The truth of the matter is that EV fires are far less common than the media tries to portray.
BYD recently unveiled their new Blade Battery, which they say will mitigate concerns about EV battery safety, and redefine the safety standards in the industry.
The Blade Battery, which has taken several years to develop, successfully passed a nail penetration test. This test is seen as one of the most rigorous means of testing thermal runaway due to its sheer difficulty.
After the battery was penetrated with a nail, the Blade didn’t emit any smoke or fire, and the surface temperature of the battery only reached between 30°C and 60°C. Compared to a ternary lithium battery, which exceeded 500°C and violently burned, and a conventional lithium ion phosphate block battery which reached 200°C to 400°C but did not smoke or emit flames, the results for the Blade are impressive.
According to press release from BYD, the Blade Battery also performed well and passed other tests that didn’t result in a fire or explosion.
“The Blade Battery also passed other extreme test conditions, such as being crushed, bent, being heated in a furnace to 300°C and overcharged by 260%.“
The first BYD vehicle to come equipped with the Blade Battery will be the Han, touted as the automakers flagship sedan. It is scheduled to launch this June, and boast a range of 605km with a 0-60mph time of 3.9 seconds.
