Electric vehicles gutted by fire - GIF

[BuffaloJohn]

This video was out last year (maybe not here, but other sites) and there was much discussion about it.

One of the biggest issues is that a small cell internal to the battery pack can fail and once it starts failing, the heat rises rapidly which causes nearby internal cells to over heat and then the reaction cascades. I have been told that once the first cell goes, the reaction is self sustaining.

One of the byproducts of some lithium battery technologies is that hydrogen is produced in abundance.