This week (June 24th–July 1st) is Green Transport Week, a week aiming to promote sustainable transport and spread awareness of the relationship between transport and the environment.

EVs are a focus of the week as their usage has grown significantly in recent years. However, EVs bring with them a greater risk of battery-related EV fires; there has specifically been a sharp increase in fires caused by EV batteries in the UK, from 32 in 2020 to 102 in 2021.

Sarah Martin, president of Honeywell Sensing and Safety Technologies, has made the following comments on the risks that follow an increase in electric vehicles:

“Adoption of electric vehicles continues to climb around the world, with this trend expected to carry through 2023 and beyond. In the first quarter of 2023 alone, more than 2.3 million electric vehicles were sold, approximately 25% more than in the same period in 2022. While this is definitely a positive trend and we hope to see even more consumers switch to EVs, there are risks that manufacturers need to be aware of. Many of these vehicles today use lithium-ion batteries as an energy source, which can pose rare but significant safety risks including fires that can impact drivers on the road, homeowners who may have EVs parked in their garages, and shipping handlers transporting EVs to their final destinations.

“The cause of fires varies, but chief among them is thermal runaway, a phenomenon that causes extremely high temperatures within the battery cell where it no longer functions properly and may eventually lead to vehicle failure, smoke, and fire. There are a number of factors that may affect the risk of this happening, including internal defects, an external short circuit, over-charging and others. Protecting against thermal runaway in electric vehicle batteries is crucial to helping keep people safe.

“As EV sales continue to increase, automakers are facing the need to provide lithium-ion batteries that are safe and reliable throughout their lifespan, so they are turning to new solutions for battery health monitoring. Fortunately, technology is making it far easier to monitor EV battery health. Advancements in sensor technology are providing battery management systems with updates on battery performance, making it possible to detect the signs of thermal runaway even earlier. The use of high-accuracy sensors can also alert drivers to the earliest signs of issues in EV batteries, helping them to minimise their risk even as their EV ages, making EVs a more viable option for all.”