China Bans Electric Vehicles from Underground Carparks – Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

First published JoNova; … They explode “as if packed full of toxic dynamite” …

China bans electric vehicles from underground carparks

They explode “as if packed full of toxic dynamite” – and one nation has already started cracking down on electric vehicles as a result.

Jamie Seidel@JamieSeidel
September 14, 2024 – 2:16PM

They flare out in a jet of flame with vicious intensity. They explode as if packed full of toxic dynamite. And when lithium-ion batteries burn, nothing can extinguish them.

This is why Chinese hotels and property managers have begun to ban all electric vehicles – scooters, e-bikes, family cars or commercial vans – from their undercroft car parks.

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“Hotels and other buildings in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Xiaoshan and other places in Zhejiang have banned electric vehicles from entering underground garages for safety reasons, sparking heated discussions,” Chinese online dissident “Mr Li is not your teacher” reported in a post to X (which is banned in China) in September. 

One of three photos attached to the post shows a sign in front of the Huigang Building in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, instructing owners of electric vehicles to divert to a nearby parking lot with “wide open spaces”.

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Local news reports that property owners were spurred into action after 11 intense battery fires in Zhejiang’s capital, Hangzhou, in May of this year.

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For the moment, Tesla recommends that – in the event of a battery fire – it’s best to let it burn.

“Instead of snuffing out the flames, water could actually fuel the fire and cause it to intensify,” says Zhar. 

“This is because the water’s reaction with the lithium can produce flammable hydrogen gas – adding more of a hazard to an already perilous situation.”

Likewise, water on a petrol fire can simply cause the fire to spread. That’s why foam and dry powder fire extinguishers were invented to smother the flames.

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Read more: https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/on-the-road/china-bans-electric-vehicles-from-underground-carparks/news-story/b7c07b8e942cb3076b704029e327d6cf

EVs are vehicles which if they catch fire cannot be extinguished, which burn at a similar temperature to a welding torch, melting concrete and steel in the immediate vicinity, threatening the structural integrity of any nearby supports, which emit hideously toxic fumes, and which can react with water to produce large quantities of highly explosive gas.

This ban has been a long time coming.