this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/62209265

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/62209262

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[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 40 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (9 children)

They already are safer than ICE cars.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

honestly the only major safety issues with EVs is tesla specific and their ultra retarded door handle system. Yes lets take a simple mechanical system that has worked great for 200 years and make it an electric button, then hide the real mechanical release in a spot that you can't find when panicked and choking to death on smoke. Great job, so futuristic.

Bigger issue overall is fire departments dragging their feet on not having the correct gear/training to handle self sustaining lithium fires. Gasoline is easy to suppress and dilute, lithium not so much, since it's difficult to get water directly to the cells to cool them below autoignition point.

[–] tresspass@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

The chevy bolt had a battery fire problem with early models that was pretty bad but they replaced all the batteries in the car and it was fine. We got ours replaced for free which essentially made it new given the batteries are the first major component that needs to be replaced.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

No but I heard about an electric car burning once, and none of my ice cars have ever combusted, so CLEARLY, electrics are deathtraps

/s

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The difference is in what happens if they do catch fire though. ICE fires can be extinguished. Li battery fires are "wait until it burns out".

It makes a big difference if your car is on a boat.

[–] phar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Or inside your garage. Or a parking deck. Or a repair shop.

[–] ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace@piefed.ca 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fuck ICE. In every sense of the expression.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Don't fuck ICE in the sexual sense of the expression. Those incels can fuck each other

*Exceptions apply

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I didn't realize until just now that they were named after the temperature of every pussy within a mile of them. Of course! It all makes sense

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Safer than an explosion-powered car carrying a big tank of gasoline? A bold claim! /s

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Cybertrucks are (supposedly) deadlier than Ford Pintos so it really depends on the comparison

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe we shouldn’t attempt to generalize about the categorizes by choosing the most grotesque extremes of both.

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago
[–] usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wait, how? Aren't they essentially the same except heavier?

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

one sets itself on fire over and over thousand of times a minute, using the explosive force to spin wheels.

The other doesn't.

They are dissimilar in this regard.

[–] usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Of course, but we're talking safety here. The claim is that ICE vehicles are less safe than EVs. I'm wondering how that is since all of the safety features will be essentially the same.

If you're saying one has a higher risk of fire injury I'd love to see the stats on that as fires for either type are pretty rare.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Every study has concluded that EV's catch fire at a rate orders of magnitude lower than ICE vehicles. That's a rate, so it takes into account the disparity in numbers of vehicles between ice and ev's

It's pretty easy to look up, even the slop machines give the right answer.

[–] usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Again, talking about safety, not fires. Not only does number of fires not necessarily mean more dangerous: the fires could be on average smaller and/or easier to escape from, or maybe they tend to happen while unoccupied (block heater fires for example) etc. but also EVs could be more dangerous in other ways (they are heavier so maybe harder to avoid certain types of incidents?) so it'd be a wash even though they're less likely to burn.

Additionally, rates are a better way of looking at these things I agree, but ignoring sample size and use case can miss part off the story. That might not be free case here, it's just worth keeping in mind.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

No shit dude the company owner is a coked up idiot who thinks 64-bit glued together utes are the pinnacle of style

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not sure I agree, but much of that is coming from their heinous "not ready for real world use" like "autopilot" and "FSD".

I just don't want to be anywhere near one when a battery's breached. That's when it goes from relatively safe to RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Hope you can unlock the doors!!!

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[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 month ago (4 children)

AFAIK sodium chemistry batteries are the worst for mobile applications as they're much less energy dense meaning you'll have a heavier pack that needs to be charged more frequently, though it is cheaper for manufacturers to produce. I recall that these work best for grid power storage where size and weight aren't an issue.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The packs CATL makes now are 175Whr/kg which is very close to LFP. They're already EV-worthy.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's great but emerging technologies are shooting for double or triple that amount, so why switch to something thats just barely reaching the equivalent potential of what's already old news?

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Because it's safer, cheaper and works in cold weather.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What EVs don't work in cold weather? Cheaper for the manufacturer for sure, and potentially safer though its not as if EV fires are some major epidemic.

[–] phx@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

At a significant loss, yes. When it was really cold here that was about 30-40%

[–] Ithral@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can live with that, 100miles of range is more than I use day to day, so is 60miles. Winter road trips could be a pain, but that's maybe once a year

[–] phx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Yeah I'd be happy with a safer battery with a bit less range if it also means it's more consistent in said range between seasons. It's good to know you'll make it to X next city/charger/etc regardless of temperatures

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I imagine vastly lower cost would be one reason. 450km range chargeable in 11 minutes would be enough for a significant proportion of people and likely desirable if the cost is low enough. I don't think it's likely that lithium would match the price/perf ratio of sodium so I think we're likely to see a lot more sodium in applications that don't require the absolute best energy density. So in a way, sodium might be the front runner, ahead of advanced lithium, in terms of what's going to be adopted. 😅

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[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

Yup, and that's exactly what we need for transitioning the entire grid to renewables. Mobile applications should be a marginal/convenience thing compared to actual infrastructure.

[–] SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org 1 points 1 month ago

Not the worst, they are still much better than traditional lead-batteries, but worse than lithium. Cheap, low-range EVs are an option however.

Other than that, you're right. They are much more useful for grid storage, where energy density is way less important than cost.

[–] davetortoise@reddthat.com 1 points 1 month ago

EVs are not the primary application for sodium ion batteries, I dont know why this post is trying to focus on that. The really exciting application is cheap grid-scale energy storage, making renewables even cheaper than they already are.

[–] redsand@infosec.pub 7 points 1 month ago

Liquid electrolyte turns into a solid insulator when heated. 211Wh/kg very cool

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

We've seen articles like this one for at least a decade, and real change has never arrived. Either it's completely poppycock like usual, or prohibitively expensive and borderline UN-craftable outside of a billion dollar lab.

Don't get too excited.

I can't wait for this to cross over to Canada.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Internal combustion engine

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

i see thanks

yeah no those burn down all the time lol

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Yes my wife has had 2 cars that had a fire. But they could be fixed, mostly new cables.
Problem with an EV catching fire is that it is hotter more intense and cannot be put out with a fire extinguisher. Even real firefighters can't generally put it out. Pouring water on it makes it worse.

[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I find the ICE acronym in a title irritating and lazy.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

NEW REVOLUTIONARY BATTERY TECHNOLOGY #46284956947

Uh huh, seen these on a weekly basis for at least 30 years now. Wake me up when you have one in a car

[–] panthera_@lemmy.today 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Trump's dislike of EVs is causing the US to fall behind technologically in its development.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Correction: Telsa's regulatory capture has lead to a stagnant market.

Solution: Allow Chinese EVs into the market.

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yeah, yeah. I have heard of new super batteries for well over a decade now. Nothing ever seems to come of it.

[–] SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago

Not this time. They are already being used. They are not super batterie though and won't to replace Lithium batteries any time soon, but they have their niches.

The main advantage over Lithium batteries is that sodium is an abundant ressource.

[–] bramkaandorp@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Of course it does. But it always happens about ten years after the breakthrough, and we barely notice, because batteries just get a bit smaller, so the capacity stays the same.

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