The Malaysian fire and rescue department (Bomba) says that the public need not be concerned about the risk of electric vehicle (EV) fires, as these are rare and the country has yet to record any cases of such fires at charging facilities in petrol stations, the Sarawak Tribune reports.
“To date, there have been no EV fire cases at petrol stations. However, we did record one case in Johor where an EV caught fire while charging at a service centre. Investigations with the car manufacturer and our expert team found that the fire was not caused by the power supply or charging unit, but rather pre-existing damage within the battery capsule, which led to a short circuit between cells,” said Bomba Malaysia director-general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad.
The case he was referring to was the incident where a Mercedes-Benz EQB was completely consumed by fire while charging at a dealership in Johor at the end of 2023. It was then reported that the company operating the charging bay was found to be operating without a license from the Energy Commission, but as it now turns out, the fire had nothing to do at all with the charge point operator.
Nor Hisham said said that statistically, incidents involving EVs catching fire are significantly lower and pose less risk compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Despite this, he acknowledged that EV fires pose certain challenges, especially when they happen in confined areas and also due to the nature of lithium-ion batteries, which can sometimes reignite within 72 hours after being extinguished.
Nonetheless, he assured that Bomba has knowledge of how to tackle EV fires and has measures in place to contain them and remove affected vehicles swiftly when incidents occur in open spaces.
He added that Bomba has introduced guidelines based on global best practices and regulatory standards to ensure that all new EV charging projects in commercial premises and areas, including those located in basements, adhere to stringent safety measures.
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Frequency of mischievous kid blowing off fingers playing banned Bola Mercun is 100x higher than car fire accident
Reminds us there’s was a news few years ago a car blown up while transporting these bola mercun stocks around east coast state LEL
Only happens to that 1 race and only during that 1 festive period
Pray we don’t have EV fires in underground and/or enclosed carparks
You forgot about the mesilis EV caught fire in south Korea building basement?
Yeah charging fire caused by faulty battery. Please pursue action with “operating without license”.. still a breach of regulation otherwise this regulation will be useless
Come on la Bomba. We have so many keyboard warriors that are expert when it comes to EV fire. According to them EV is the most stupid and evil thing ever come out from west capitalist. Anytime anywhere EV could just burst into flame. It’s a vile attempt to stop them from taking a whiff directly from their ICE car tail pipe every morning.
The risk of occurance is low but severity if happen is extremely high
Risk of EV fires remains low in Malaysia, says Bomba..
what a dumb statement…
The number of EV in Malaysia is very very low… so on what basis is bomba claiming the risk is low!!
Really? Low? It’s low because the overall total EV vs ICE is very very very very low. Wait till the EV is more than 50% than ICE…then one shall see whether low or not.
this cannot be true mr bomba, chinese ev are all moving dynamites they said