BYD electric taxi catches fire, killing three onboard

BYD electric taxi catches fire, killing three onboard

Accidents happen, but here’s an unusual one. According to reports from China, a BYD electric taxi was hit by a Nissan GT-R in Shenzhen, China, before catching fire. The cab driver and his two passengers were killed in the accident.

It may have involved a supercar and a taxi, but this fatal accident is less straightforward than the recent Ferrari-taxi crash in Singapore. The 21st Century Business Herald said that the fire was believed to have started from the cab’s battery pack.

The lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery in question was developed by battery expert BYD, also China’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer. The Shenzhen-based company is partly owned by American billionaire Warren Buffett. Following the incident, BYD shares tumbled in Hong Kong and Shanghai amid concerns about the safety of BYD’s e6 electric car.

This is the second well known accident in China in which an EV caught fire. Last year, an electric taxi made by Chinese automaker Zoyte went up in flames due to a leak in the battery pack. No one was hurt in that incident.

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Danny Tan

Danny Tan loves driving as much as he loves a certain herbal meat soup, and sweet engine music as much as drum beats. He has been in the auto industry since 2006, previously filling the pages of two motoring magazines before joining this website. Enjoys detailing the experience more than the technical details.

 

Comments

  • mamat on May 29, 2012 at 9:23 am

    just can’t trust these chinaman product….

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 1
    • Vader on May 29, 2012 at 1:58 pm

      even the keypad you using to type those comment is made from china..

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 1
    • Masked Ryder on May 29, 2012 at 2:50 pm

      Ya ! The Italian man Lamborghini also catch fire, Korean man New Elantra also burn.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Wisdom on May 29, 2012 at 9:49 am

    Anything with high energy density (battery, fuel, radioactive substances) tend to release its power under immense impact. Either they explode or caught fire.
    Only C4 have its own unbelievable stability. It wont lite up/explode no matter how hard u knock it. Only explode when ignite with its blasting cap.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • Mickey McFinnigan on May 29, 2012 at 10:42 am

      This could be due to overcharging the battery.. Due to the LiFePO4 unable to absorb any more energy the overcharge energy is dissipated as heat. They should have built a fail-safe to cut off the charging once it reaches full. Other than that, could be poor workmanship. BYD – Build your Dreams? In this case it seems like Burns You Down.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • ss427 on May 29, 2012 at 9:55 am

    Well its a chinese car from a well known company whose lineup are mostly rip offs from Toyota and Hondas.

    Even this E6 uses plenty of UNLICENSED Toyota parts. The steering wheel, instrucment cluster, all p/w switches etc are all rip off from Toyota.

    Not surprised that the E6 caught fire… with such sloppy workmanship, it will prob catch fire just by parking there LOL

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 2
  • goguncas71 on May 29, 2012 at 10:01 am

    How is this news? Petrol powered cars catch fire after accidents everyday all over the world.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • BYD – Brings You Death ???

    Just how the world’s smartest investor Warren Buffet also got fooled cheated conned into buying this crap BYD company. Amazing!

    Looks like BYD is learning from Protongkat how to sell crap to rich investor and govt funds!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 1
    • ss427 on May 29, 2012 at 12:30 pm

      Even the BYD badge itself, looks like a warped version of BMW’s… :(

      BYD=Build your Deathtrap!

      http://www.bydauto.com.cn/
      I’ll leave it up to you guys to see for yourself.. They’ve even ripped off the prev gen Lexus RX!

      How to take the company seriously when their entire lineup is full of pirated cars??

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • 4G63T DSM on May 29, 2012 at 10:22 am

    I’m not surprised, but I wont lay blame on BYD’s shoddy workmanship if any. I wont be so quick to belittle chinese products.

    High density lithium batteries are inherently quite unstable, and its not rare to see some of these catch fire, be it in your laptop, cell phones and likewise. Just short out your laptop battery and you’d get a cloud of smoke if not a fire.

    There seems to be a general trend in pioneering electric car manufacturers with high density batteries dealing with potential fire hazard, even GM’s Volt and the Fisker Karma having recalls.

    Its a dark day when someone looses their life in a traffic incident, but it could have been very likely that the passengers and driver have been incapacitated from the initial impact. Other reports that the GTR was at very high speed when the impact happened.

    Car fires tend to be escapable…. having witness first hand 2 cars having engine fires. Even so, it didn’t stop normal cars catching fire judging from the well publicised (an embarrassing) incidents with Gallardos and R8 V10s catching fire.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • lithium on May 29, 2012 at 12:10 pm

      for once a sensible comment. i find all these china products bashing tiring. china manufacture everything from high end to low end products.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Rulered on May 29, 2012 at 10:28 am

    Biodiesel is the future

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • 4G63T DSM on May 29, 2012 at 10:32 am

    Perhaps we should start carrying fire extinguishers. Once I saved some ones car from an engine fire, because I had one in the car.

    This is one of the things I do carry, since I was nearly a victim of an engine fire, when my crankcase got over pressurized and poped the oil dipstick, spewing oil over my hot turbo and exhaust manifold. (on turbo 4g63s, the oil dipstick is near the exhaust manifold). Lucky for me, I managed to extinguish the fire before it got bad.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Clutch Basah on May 29, 2012 at 10:47 am

    Meh.. just another China made product. Nothing new.
    Although i feel sorry for the loss.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • bobdbilder on May 29, 2012 at 10:53 am

    The BYD shares are back up. Buffet is as good as ever. He always did look at fundamentals. He probably bought it at its lowest price on 24 May 2012. But when you look at Geely and Great Wall they are up as well. China is subsidizing for more power efficient consumer products and they’re pumping USD4.2 billion in that subsidy.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Spear on May 29, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    I m not totally surprised with this as I can see this coming. Electric car or even Hybrid are still relatively new. My concern is what happen when there are accidents and so far not many accidents involving these vehicles yet and we really don’t know what will happen. This even applied to pioneer like Prius. Here is an interesting articles I read recently http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/repair/what-to-do-when-your-hybrid-cars-battery-dies

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • nazri on May 29, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    don’t be bias,if ICE car can catch fire,no need to worry if same thing happen to electric car

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Simon Ng on May 29, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    It is truly an unfortunate incident that life is lost and there could be a problem in the battery design. The hard reality is, new technology can have unpredictable results. Sometimes can be fatal like this one. I am really sorry for the lost.

    If BYD is really serious about learning from mistakes and make improvement. They might jump ahead and stay infront of the industry.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • MostPhat on May 29, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    Damn title is so misleading.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Hybrids are susceptible as well. However I think hybrids have smaller batteries than a full EV.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • how come all bashing china electric car? no one bashed the speeding nissan gtr whose driver probably has similar road mentality to the china ferrari driver in singapore crash. any automobile whacked at high speed by supercar/any other car can and will catch fire.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Chow 1 on May 29, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    Can’t blame people who are having negative impression about Chinese products. There are too many cases of product issues for example toxic toys, toxic walls, toxic shoes, toxic milk, toxic cooking oil. Too many Chinese companies don’t care about the consumer but only their own gains. It’s no surprise people will think this car accident is caused by a bad product.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • China made car not just a blunt copy-cat but also a 4 tyre moving coffin.
    I told you so..

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

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