4 ms·

They are fairly common. 233,300 fires and 329 deaths per year in the US according to http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-reports/fire-stat

• HWR_14 6y ago
  That covers the number of times vehicles have caught fire. It doesn't reference the cause (e.g. spontaneous combustion vs. as a result of a crash).
  • davidgould 6y ago
    I personally have had the car I was driving catch fire spontaneously. Once I was inside, once nearby. Funny thing, same car, different causes.
    • HWR_14 6y ago
      I'm glad you got out safely. Judging by all the replies it's far more likely than I guessed. I've been lucky.
  • tlb 6y ago
    The NFPA has data on that too. Fire causes are: - 47% mechanical - 21% electrical - 7% intentional - 6% exposure - 4% crash, overturn, run-over - 2% smoking So crashes are a relatively rare cause. They also break it down by the area the fire started: - 63% engine area, running gear, or wheel area - 11% passenger/operator area - 5% cargo/trunk - 3% exterior - 2% fuel tank or line Interpolating between those numbers, you might guess that between 20% and 40% of fires could be described as "engine spontaneously combusting." That would be 45,000 - 90,000 per year in the US. So despite you never having heard of it, it does happen. [0] https://www.nfpa.org/vehiclefires https://www.nfpa.org/vehiclefires, numbers above from report table 8 & 9
    • HWR_14 6y ago
      Thanks for finding that data. That's interesting. I'm amazed that that happens, because absent people bringing it up when talking about Tesla I've never really heard that before. Most interesting is that the first part of an ICE to catch on fire is most frequently the electrical wiring. And even if it is a flammable liquid (the second most likely cause), it's only a 42% chance that liquid was gasoline! Thanks again, it's interesting reading.
      • davidgould 6y ago
        Likely the reason you’ve never heard of car fires before is that they are so common that they are not news.