Is is really true that 1.5% of gasoline powered vehicles catch fire? Or, though unlikely, do they mean natural gas IC rather than gasoline?
And what it is that makes hybrids twice as likely to burn as IC cars? Can’t be the battery, because according to those figures electric cars are almost fireproof!
Well it seems lots of folks are being misled by the “facts”? This is from 2024.<strong style=”font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;”>“Most fires occur with hybrid vehicles, followed by petrol cars. Battery electric vehicles are least likely to catch fire.”
I bough a 4 year old large PHEV nearly five years ago. Tax is zero. Maintence, repairs and tyres has been about £700 a year. Depreciation has been minimal, about 5% PA. So total cost excluding fuel and insurance has been less than £150 per month. Work commute is fuel free as I can charge FoC at work. can’t do much better than that. Even if you wrote the value off completely after 5 years it’s less than a PCP contract on a mid spec Astra petrol (which you have to pay over £10,000 to keep after 4 years) not counting maintenance and £190 a year tax.
No problem with the tax man. Initally companies were supposed to apply for an exemption based on it being insignificant benefit. They did away with that and now it’s automatically a free benefit.
A mates just bought a RAV4 Hybrid, hopefully it’s been sorted?! 😆
Well, keeping it in perspective, in the past few weeks, Toyota have just recalled 102,092 ICE vehicles for a full engine replacement. “There is a possibility that certain machining debris may not have been cleared from the engine when it was produced. In the involved vehicles, this can lead to potential engine knocking, engine rough running, engine no start and/or a loss of motive power. A loss of motive power while driving at higher speeds can increase the risk of a crash.”
Other ongoing recalls: “22 vehicle models for equipment issues” details later this month, plus “33,848 cars, trucks, and SUVs due to a label displaying an incorrect load-carrying capacity “.
Is there any solid evidence that hybrids are more likely to catch fire than other types of road vehicle? Assertions on the internet without data or a reference are not, repeat NOT, evidence. So far the only source I’ve seen that does quote numbers turned out to be a pile of elephant droppings!
In general, when trawling the internet, how does one tell the difference between truth and lies? A great deal of internet material has severe quality issues because so many posters favour beliefs, emotions, wishful-thinking, blame culture, lies, ego, and jumping to conclusions over cold-hard facts.
My neighbour has just acquired £30k worth of 72 plate Tesla. Good for him.
Now I can’t hear him leaving or arriving which is brilliant. Apart from all the usual door banging of course.
BUT
He then charges it on his drive under my windows and it sounds like a cheap air-conditioning system with various battery pack and electronics cooling fans running through the night.
It’s plainly audible, even through closed windows.
Tesla and the other PHEV supporters don’t mention that, do they?
Vic, This is close to trolling. The recall has nothing to do with hybrid or electric vehicles and as it only applies to models up to 2018 your “mate’s” new hybrid is claearly not affected.
The problem is people fitting undersize replacement batteries. Most companies would not do a recall for this. It is also an MOT failure in the UK and all affected cars would be due an MOT.
It just shows the differenc between Toyta and say Vauxhall who would not do a recall for fires due to them not fitting a thermal fuse on heater fan speed resistors until forced to by consumer groups and the media.