Featured Hyundai Kona EV explodes in Montreal

While leaks aren’t common (I’m sure @hill ’s inside tank isn’t the only one) they happen .

So given the many factors at play in largely populated areas, it’s a risk benefit analysis equation .

But I’m not the type to press my luck.

 

Battery pack is under the cabin floor. There's a see-through picture in this article. 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric CUV - detailed specs, battery pack, HD photos

That fits with the blown out windshield, destroyed front end and melted rear wheels in the picture.

I'd be very interested in knowing what the investigation determines as the cause. Did it get wet? Hot? Both? Something else?

 

The more I look into this the more I think the battery is not the primary cause.
According to this, Exclusive: details on Hyundai’s new battery thermal management design – Electric Revs, the Kona uses Li “pouches”. These are incredibly safe and difficult to cause to explode. Their system is also liquid cooled.
To get such a large explosive force... well, I don’t know if even every pouch simultaneously popping would cause enough force.
I suspect it was possible some other primary cause occurred which then ignited the car, and possibly the batteries, but I don’t see the batteries igniting being capable of that explosive force.

 

Wow, the car must be a real bomb.

 

Under the bonnet - which is where the main damage appears to be (there's a big plastic cover over this ...

 

The battery is located under the cabin.

https://www.hyundai.ie/home/all-new-kona-electric.html

 

Yes, I realise that - but someone commented that a lot of the devastation seemed in the front?? - which, really is difficult to tell from just one photo.

 

Note the scorch marks on the rear fender and the melted rear wheel sitting at an odd angle. There was some serious heat back there!

 

yes, and from under the sill - like where the battery is. It's only conjecture - where did it start?

I guess, time will tell us.

 

...and notice that the front wheels are intact.

 

And we can't rule out damage done by the fire fighters, like ripping off the hood to better reach the fire source.

Battery fires can be intense, but an explosion that took off the garage door is puzzling. I'm guessing gases from the battery, or even something else, building up in the garage was the cause.

 

LoL!!

 

We'll never hear the end of it, if this Kona owner was storing a large propane cylinder.

.

 

spokesman for the montreal fire service said that there 'didn't seem to be any other factors inside the garage that could have caused the explosion'...

 

whew!

.

 

On multiple levels.

 

I wonder if the battery pack is sealed? If one pouch went, the added pressure & heat set of others in a chain reaction? Once enough pressure built up it blew the pack, windshield, garage door?

I do hope we hear about the final report. I am very curious.

 

Now this is just an assumption on my part, but considering the potential dangers with batteries, and how everybody else does it, the battery cells are all packed in a metal case. The pouches actually exploding with enough force to blow the garage door out would result in some severe damage to that case. We only have the one photo, but the car seems to have suffered only fire damage. The broken glass could easily have occurred during the act of putting the fire out, or they could have been blown in or simply shattered from the heat.

That is why I'm thinking the explosion was outside the car from gases contained in the garage itself. A fire starts in or near the car. before the battery cells start burning themselves, the heated electrolyte starts breaking down. Those by products venting into the garage can be flammable and explosive. Assuming there wasn't another fuel source in the garage.

 

I am still skeptical that it was the car that caused this damage.
To the best of my knowledge, batteries can off-gas toxic fumes, but nothing explosive.
If something else started a fire, and the batteries cooked and blew, that might explain blowing the garage door across the street. But, as you said, there doesn't appear to be that much damage to the car itself.
I wonder if there was a nat gas line running to, or under the garage?

 

This was posted in the comments of the Electrek article.
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1317419/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Page 31 has the start of a table on what is happening in a Li-ion battery undergoing thermal runaway. In the beginning, ethane, methane, and other flammable hydrocarbons are emitted. Once the pack hits the actual runaway stage, it starts giving off oxygen too. The actual burning comes after.

The question is can a car traction pack vent enough of these gases into an enclosed garage for the explosion that happened here, or does something else need to contribute?