While I have never been a fan of electric vehicles, I presumed they were just another thing we would all learn to live with. Much like girls with pink hair or nose rings, or guys with man buns. If that's what floats your boat, have at it. just don't try to tell me why I need one or why I should like it. Well, after an incident last week I can tell you that I have a new found dislike for anything containing a lithium battery. As most of you here know, my wife and I drive a truck. We had an issue with one of our work phones where the apps would work sometimes and not other times. We originally attributed this to the app or the service area. But after contacting our companies IT division they told us to remove the battery and inspect it as rebooting had made no difference. Taking the back of the phone off was no problem but the battery itself was stuck in the phone so I used my pocketknife to pry it out right there in the truck sleeper at the table. It popped right out alright, but undoubtedly in the process of prying it, I knicked the thin metal covering on the case of the battery. As soon as it landed on the table it started spewing a black ash and then flames were shooting out of it. This happened incredibly fast and, fortunately, we have a rug on the floor there in the sleeper and I guess I scraped it onto that rug (not really sure as it happened so fast but I sustained no burns) and was able to throw it and the rug out the door of the truck that my wife was sitting at. All this happened while the IT guy was on the speaker phone and I unleashed a flurry of very un-Christian like expletives during the encounter which lasted mere seconds. The IT guy was freaking out, as was myself and my wife. Once we determined that the truck wasn't going to burn down and we had no injuries the IT guy said he had experienced these batteries swelling once they were a couple of years old and that he had also had to use a screwdriver to remove several of them himself. He did state that this practice would no longer be employed and made a note that in the future a plastic knife would be the tool of choice to remove them.
It was an extremely hot fire with ashes melting into the plastic table top in the truck. Some actually fell onto a blanket on the bed leaving black melted spots in the fabric. We could have easily lost a $200K Peterbilt along with the $200K refrigerated trailer that was attached had things gone sideways in the hastily contrived removal of this incendiary device.
So, with this knowledge burned into my brain (almost literally) I can certainly imagine the outcome of a major crash in an EV and let me tell you, I will walk before I'll get in one of those things.
Electric vehicles? Not just no but.....
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