5 ms·

So "gas explodes" doesn't carry its own environmental issue and personal danger too ?

• bob1029 7y ago
  Gasoline has a whole host of issues, but as far as I know there have been zero recorded cases of a modern gasoline tank spontaneously exploding while the car is sitting undisturbed in a parking lot. The advantages gasoline has here is that it ultimately requires tons of oxygen with a consistent fuel-air mixture in order to combust reliably. Burning gasoline in the open is not nearly as energetic as the process which occurs in a gasoline engine under ideal operating conditions (which are controlled meticulously by a computer for most cars), so even in an accident which results in a fuel leak+fire, you usually have a bit of time to get away from the car before it turns into a complete inferno. Obviously, there are exceptions to this, but it seems to be in a majority of cases the driver/passengers can get out in time. Battery packs do not have the same 'problem'. They have all aspects of their chemical energy available nearly immediately, and can go from zero to 'you are dead' in just a matter of seconds.