{"id":14417,"date":"2025-08-16T10:05:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/?p=14417"},"modified":"2025-08-16T10:06:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T08:06:16","slug":"electric-car-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2025\/08\/16\/electric-car-fires\/","title":{"rendered":"Electric car fires have had the world on tenterhooks: now data shows whether or not they are dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Polish State Fire Service is categorical in its reports: the fire rate is identical between electric and combustion models.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although there seems to have been a lull now, in 2025 there was a period when a series of electric car fires put society on alert. Fear began to spread and, as a result, parking was even banned in some places. However, how much of this is true and how much is not?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Polish State Fire Service has shared a report with the data it has collected during its interventions, as reported by PSNM, and its conclusions are clear: of all vehicle-related fires in which it responded during the first half of the year, electric cars were responsible for less than 0.5%.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"Aunque<\/p>\n

Although rare, fires involving electric vehicles are difficult to extinguish due to the presence of the battery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Data on electric car fires is average<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n

The headline in the fire department’s report is stark: fires involving combustion engine vehicles accounted for 98.39% of all incidents. However, this figure is somewhat unrealistic, given that electric car sales in Poland only accounted for 8% of the market, meaning that there are far fewer battery-powered vehicles than those equipped with combustion engines. Thus, between January and June, there were only 23 fires involving electric vehicles, compared to 4,636 involving combustion models and 53 involving hybrids and plug-in hybrids.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is why we need to look at the relative data, i.e., the fire rate per 1,000 registered vehicles, as this is more accurate. This shows that 0.23 electric vehicles catch fire per 1,000 registered vehicles, exactly the same as combustion engine vehicles. In this regard, hybrids (HEVs and PHEVs) can boast a rate of 0.04 per 1,000 vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Albert Kania, from F5A New Mobility Research and Consulting, explains: “Although electric vehicle fires continue to attract media attention, the verified data does not support the claim that they are more dangerous than combustion engine vehicles. On the contrary, analysis of the causes shows that only 30% of fires were due to a fault or malfunction, and not all of them affected the high-voltage system. In more than half of the incidents (52%), the cause was defined as \u2018other or unknown\u2019, meaning that there is no clear evidence of a connection with the electric propulsion system or the battery.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The firefighters’ point of view<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n

Looking back, data has been collected in Poland since 2020. In this five-year period, there have been 50,833 fires involving combustion cars, 222 involving hybrids, and only 87 involving pure electric vehicles. As is logical, this is largely due to the sales volumes of each type.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tomasz Jonio, brigadier general at the headquarters of the Polish State Fire Service, explains: “Fires involving alternative propulsion vehicles, such as \u2018fully electric vehicles\u2019 and hybrids, continue to generate a lot of controversy. In the media, almost all car fires are immediately described as \u2018electric vehicle\u2019 fires. Subsequent clarifications or corrections to the information no longer reach this audience. This creates a negative perception of the safety of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and some firefighting communities rely on media reports.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, it adds some insight into why extinguishing electric vehicle fires takes longer, which, in addition to the nature of the fire itself, also has to do with the procedures performed by firefighters: “It should be noted that fires involving electric or hybrid vehicles take longer [to extinguish] than those involving conventional vehicles, but this is due to the provisions of the body’s principles of action, which require the temperature of the vehicle’s battery to be checked at specific intervals. This ensures the safety of operations for rescuers and the person in charge of the rescue operation, but also for the person or entity that takes charge of the damaged vehicle after a fire.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n
\n

\n