Amazon electric vans ignite in Houston heat rivian rules out battery fault hey there EV lovers welcome to evpedia your ultimate hub for everything electric vehicles if you're as pumped about the future of Transportation as we are then you've come to the right place we're here to bring you the latest news reviews and tips on all things EV but before we dive into the electric goodness we need your help to keep our battery charged so if you enjoy what you see give that subscribe button a little love hit the like button to show your support and drop us a comment with your thoughts or questions and if you're feeling extra generous consider giving us a super thanks to help us improve and bring you even more amazing content we promise we read every single one of your messages the Fourth of July week didn't go as planned for three rivan Amazon electric delivery vans in Houston Electric Vehicle fires are rare but they quickly make headlines due to the new technology and ongoing public education about EV safety a recent incident that caught our attention involved three rivan Amazon electric delivery Vans edvs bursting into flames at an Amazon fulfillment center in Houston Texas this week for starters Amazon is using thousands of edvs made by rivan to cut its emissions the fleet is quickly expanding and they're already all over the US the footage of the edv's catching fire was captured by drone operator Third Coast drone on July 1st and first reported by Gizmodo in the video above you can see a large parking lot with enss of edvs and some are plugged in for charging the Mac maximum temperature that day had reached almost 100° f as the scorching summer heat wave continues to affect several US states the Drone operator saw plumes of toxic black smoke Rising towards the sky from one rivan edv first and then the fire spread to two other edvs parked adjacent we are aware of the incident and are investigating the situation a rivian spokesperson told inside EVS there were no injuries as we are gathering information it's too soon to say what might have caused this thermal event we're grateful one was injured and are thankful for the Houston fire department's rapid response Amazon said in a statement we're working with a thirdparty investigator and experts from rivan to investigate and are not going to speculate so we won't be sharing additional details until we're confident in the facts some immediate safety precautions have also been taken at the site the Chargers connected to the damaged circuit panel board have all been turned off Amazon electrical engineers and a high voltage specialist determined that the rest of the Chargers at the site were safe to use study have shown that EVS Catch Fire a lot less compared to combustion engine vehicles in the rare instances when they do the fires are dramatic and excruciatingly difficult to douse that's in part because the lithium ion battery is extremely flammable there were a few Vehicles impacted by the incident but the thermal event propagated from the source to surrounding Vehicles rivan said this vehicle was plugged into the charger but it was not charging when the incident occurred the HV battery was not the initiator of the incident the spokesperson at it in the video above you can see firefighters struggling to extinguish the Flames but it continues to rage on showcasing the challenges First Responders face due to Thermal runaway a phenomenon where lithium iion battery cells enter an uncontrollable self-heating and oxygen creating State and the pack continues to reignite until there's nothing left to burn modern-day lithium ion batteries have come a long way in terms of fire safety the US doesn't seem to have a repository of EV related fire incidents but Norway found that IC power vehicles are four to five times more likely to catch fires another study in Sweden found that all non-ev fuel types produced 68 fires per 100,000 Vehicles compared to 3.8 fires per 100,000 vehicles for EVS that doesn't mean things can't go terribly wrong using non-certified batteries irregular charging patterns damage to the battery pack and extreme heat have all been linked to fires and EVs and that's a wrap for today's episode of evpedia we hope you had as much fun as we did exploring the world of electric vehicles remember your likes subscribes and comments are the Sparks that keep our motor running if you enjoyed today's video please consider giving us a super thanks your contributions make a huge difference and help us deliver even better content so click that subscribe button give us a thumbs up and let us know what you think in the comments below thanks for watching and stay charged until next time keep it electric