Electrify America burns a Rivian down

[SANZC02]

Fires happen, there have been a couple at Superchargers as well but nothing compared to gas stations.

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[WSea]

Hopefully had drivecam setup. need to see that side footage. Or does it stop as soon as you park?

 

[Trandall]

Ugh, now I have to field questions from skeptical friends and relatives about how likely my Rivian is to burst into flames.
So here is my quick research from NFIRS which collects data on auto fires. Apparently between 2013- 2017 there were an average of 117,000 automobile fires per year in the US and surprisingly only 5% were caused by accidents. I'm struggling to find clear info on rate of fire incidents by vehicle type (ICE/ EV) but all indications are that ICE vehicle are much more likely seconded by hybrids then full EV's.
I guess my response to the ill informed when they ask me if I'm worried about fire risk will be "not since I rid my household of ICE cars, are you worried about your ICE car catching fire."

 

[Zoidz]

The charge cables are fine, as shown in the other pictures. That white plastic handle would be totally melted and it's not even charred. So I kind of suspect it wasn't even plugged in, and gasoline was involved here.

Also note: lights are still working!

Wait, so vandalism by someone?

The simplest answer is the most likely answer.

The vehicle could have been charging, suffered an internal failure in the DC charge circuitry, started to overheat/smoke and the connection was pulled out before the fire consumed the vehicle. Vandalism with an accelerant is possible, but not the most likely reason by far.

 

[Dark-Fx]

The simplest answer is the most likely answer.

The vehicle could have been charging, suffered an internal failure in the DC charge circuitry, started to overheat/smoke and the connection was pulled out before the fire consumed the vehicle. Vandalism with an accelerant is possible, but not the most likely reason by far.

Gasoline vandalism would be a pretty simple answer, wouldn't it?

 

[srnyoung]

Maybe a laptop in the frunk caught fire.
Didn’t even melt the tire.

 

[Dirty_B]

Woah, big claim to make based off of a single photo on the Internet!

You mean kinda like this whole thread that has blamed EA for the fire?

 

[defcon888]

When we had our Volvo XC40 Recharge we used EA all the time with no issue.

You do hear about these things every now and then, but if you put it into perspective, how many vehicles are being charged a day (ChargePoint, EA, EVGo, Tesla, RAN, Volta etc.) without issue?. It is unfortunate that we only hear when things go bad. I work a few miles from the Tesla plant in Fremont and you hear about this every now and then on Tesla but I think it is more of a glitch in the charging-to-vehicle connection.

 

[blturner]

I wonder how often chargers are sabotaged. This fire may have started at the plug to car connection. A loose electrical connection will get very hot. Putting some flammable grease on the connector could both decrease the connection area causing heating and provide a bit of accelerant to start a fire.

Hope they find the real cause of this fire.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Maybe a laptop in the frunk caught fire.
Didn’t even melt the tire.

Maybe they had a fridge in the frunk running off the 12V inside

 

[ohseedee]

Wow. I used this exact same charging stall in April during a trip. Was there for about 30 minutes and everything worked fine and was fast. Crazy to think what could have happened…

 

[defcon888]

I wonder how often chargers are sabotaged. This fire may have started at the plug to car connection. A loose electrical connection will get very hot. Putting some flammable grease on the connector could both decrease the connection area causing heating and provide a bit of accelerant to start a fire.

Hope they find the real cause of this fire.

good point. If I am not mistaken, EA doesn't lock their plugs. You can plugin and then pay and then it will start charging. Maybe they should lock them until you pay. This would prevent that sabotage. If it is people sabotaging EV's because they don't like them, shame on them. They should install CCTV cameras at the stations. I like EV's for fueling savings and technology and not so much for saving the environment (which I care about, but that wasn't my motivation to purchase our R1T).

 

[Rs6er]

I’ll go on the record as saying this had to be a Tesla false flag operation.

?

 

[suprteck]

good point. If I am not mistaken, EA doesn't lock their plugs. You can plugin and then pay and then it will start charging. Maybe they should lock them until you pay. This would prevent that sabotage. If it is people sabotaging EV's because they don't like them, shame on them. They should install CCTV cameras at the stations. I like EV's for fueling savings and technology and not so much for saving the environment (which I care about, but that wasn't my motivation to purchase our R1T).

Even when you’re charging and walk away someone can touch the screen to cancel your charge session and you have to come out again to restart.

 

[docwhiz]

If there’s a company (or type of company) that could buy EA and turn it around, who would that be?

Tesla

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