Electric vehicle infrastructure risks and safety. Literature

The automotive industry is over a decade into the transition away from the production of internal combustion engine vehicles in favour of electric and hybrid electric vehicles. As with all fast-developing technologies, innovation and the speed of deployment for charging infrastructure to support the rapid growth in electric and hybrid vehicles, has outpaced legislation and regulations. Media focus on electric and hybrid vehicle fires has been far greater than on fires concerning internal combustion engine vehicles. With many reports on those fires being speculative, there is a degree of confusion and a profound lack of awareness across the clean energy industry as to what are the real risks posed by electric and hybrid vehicles. This guide seeks to provide the reader with what can now be determined as ‘facts’ about the impacts of modern vehicle fires. Where this new information creates challenges for fire safety, public safety and environmental protection, it also helps to identify further areas of research required to help improve safety and the goal of developing an industry approved code of practice for the deployment of EV charging infrastructure.