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Charging your electric (company) car at home: how safe is that?

At the virtual Motor Show, all brands are showing off their range of electric cars. The new car tax is pushing sales of electric vehicles or EVs (electrical vehicles).
For commercial vehicles, for a leader in the leasing market, this would mean a 100% increase in sales in 2021 compared with 2020. Their order book predicts a similar increase for 2022.
More and more people will be home-charging their cars. Whether it is a hybrid vehicle or an all-electric model. To what extent are they prepared for this?
Is it dangerous to charge your company car at home at night? Or in an underground garage? How wrong can it really be? And above all: what can you do as a user to prevent this?

When things go terribly wrong ...

Admittedly, cars with combustion engines are also a fire hazard. Petrol can burn extremely hot and long. Currently, cars with a conventional engine catch fire even ten times more often than electric cars, but the fire originates in the engine compartment in two-thirds of the cases. This makes them much easier to extinguish. This can be done from below and via the open bonnet. A fuel tank burns completely differently from a car battery.
A burning lithium ion battery is a chemical fire that requires a completely different approach to extinguishing and towing. A battery fire immediately implies a total loss.
When an electric car burns, it generates thermal energy in the battery. This can lead to a so-called thermal runaway. In this case, the fire jumps from one battery cell to another. This chemical process can only be interrupted by intensive cooling. This requires as much as 10,000 litres of water and therefore usually an additional fire engine. This is only step one because an electrical car fire can flare up again up to 24 hours after the initial extinguishing.


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Challenges for the fire service

An instructional video for American fire brigades. This video was made in cooperation with a well-known manufacturer of EVs. Or is it something less obvious according to this non-sponsored footage? 


In the Netherlands, the fire brigade already turned out twice a week on average in 2017 for a battery fire. A Dutch firefighter invented this battery fire cooler to extinguish the car from the bottom. In doing so, firefighters must constantly watch out for electrocution. If the cooling process is stopped, however, the battery pack usually ignites again.

The fire brigade therefore submerges an electric or hybrid vehicle in a container filled with water for 48 hours.

All this requires fire brigades to be prepared. Apart from the water immersion container itself, they need additional equipment. A low-loader, for example, to bring it to the scene. At that time, a crane will place the car in the partially water-filled container in order to submerge the battery pack.

A full container including the car quickly weighs about 13 tonnes. This requires appropriate equipment. With a heavy crane, the fire brigade can also create some more distance, which is advisable with the released gases.
The whole thing can then go to the salvage company. After a few days, the vehicle leaks out above the container and a thermal imaging camera is used to check whether there are any more hotspots. The water in the container is contaminated and must be removed by a specialised company.

If it is an electric bus that ignites, the container is no longer there. In Germany, this led to 3 burnt-out bus depots last year.

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Underground charging: not a good idea?

A hybrid or electric vehicle with a powerful lithium ion battery that becomes excessively hot, smells strongly, produces smoke or sparks should be placed immediately away from flammable materials. For these types of batteries in cars, ABC powder extinguishers, (spray) foam extinguishers or sand are no longer sufficient. Water works, but only if an extremely large quantity is available.

In a car park, therefore, the initial cooling can already be problematic. Due to the low ceilings, long walking routes and limited reconnaissance possibilities, the logistics of bringing in and removing large quantities of extinguishing and cooling water are not at all obvious.

Not to mention the fire hazard for the residential units above parking garages. Placing charge points close to the exit can make a difference, but what about owners who bought a parking space deeper in the garage?

It is absolutely a priority to work on specific fire safety requirements for electric vehicles and charging facilities in parking garages. These safety requirements alone will not make the garages safer, but neither will foresight and wise choices in new construction.

What does this mean for businesses?

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Employers are now investing in charging stations on their premises. This is made up for by non-negligible tax benefits. Minister Van Peteghem's bill also contains a section on infrastructure investments. Every company that invests in the purchase of charging stations is entitled to a double tax reduction.
If these charging stations can be used by the public outside office hours, they are an interesting source of income for companies with a favourable geographical location. In Flanders, there are already obligations to provide for this with every new planning permit since March '21. 

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Employees can also charge their vehicles at home, but then they must have a garage or a parking space in front of their home. This is necessary for the installation of a wallbox at the employee's home. This box on the garage wall or façade is connected to the electricity board. An installer may need to install a separate group for this.

The other option is to use a smart cable. This system of cables, connected to an electrical box, enables the battery to be charged safely. A mobile connection records the charging data so that the costs are settled with the employer.

But what about liability when an employee's company car is charging in an underground garage outside working hours and causes a fire? Is the employer also responsible for the installation, inspection and maintenance of smoke detectors, safe(r) charging stations etc? In any case, you have to take out specific insurance policies in this case. Will this be required from the employer who offers the car to his employee in the future?
Companies have more possibilities to safely store lithium ion batteries from mobile work equipment, which is not possible for the company car until now. The knowledge about this can be of importance in the home environment.

Safer home charging: what can I do?

Choose a charging station: the best idea in terms of safety

A very important factor here is the sockets. There are many good ones, but also obsolete ones, poorly earthed or not properly installed. Charging a car is done at high power, which puts a full load on that socket. Normally, a maximum of 9.6 amps can be supplied, but almost all electric cars and plug-in hybrids are above this limit.

Sockets in your home are suitable for 230 V and currents up to 16 A. However, when they continuously supply 230 V x 16 A for a longer period of time, they quickly heat up to about 100 degrees Celsius in less than half an hour. When a socket outlet continues to deliver high power at high temperatures, there is a risk of a thermal break, often leading to a fire hazard. In the worst case, the socket and the connected wires can burn out completely! The use of extension cords and multiple socket outlets with car charging is therefore absolutely unacceptable.

Running your washing machine or dryer at the same time as charging the car can cause problems due to the high demand. The previously mentioned wallbox may be a solution. Most modern wallbox charging stations can balance the local load of the household thanks to smart charging functions. So be sure to inform yourself about Load Balancing.
Furthermore, the user saves on charging time because a charging station charges much faster. Up to 50 hours at a standard socket vs. 2 to 14 hours at a home charging station.

So that also makes a difference in electric kilometres and cost savings. This becomes even more advantageous when the employer can agree more favourable electricity tariffs with the energy supplier. This can be up to five times cheaper than public charging.
If you can charge at home at night, you are less dependent on charging stations at work or stops at public car parks. A less hurried or stressed-out employee is also, by definition, an employee who is less likely to be involved in an accident on the road or even at work.


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Inform yourself sufficiently about the electrical installation in your hybrid or EV

This car has a high voltage system. The cables are designed so that they are almost never exposed, but after a collision or the car's bumpy bottom plate, it remains to be seen what the state of the battery cells will be. Manufacturers require the car to be returned to the manufacturer after an impact to check those battery cells internally. In practice, people usually only have the car dented. That involves a considerable risk.

Using a charging cable other than the original one is another risk factor. There is a good chance that non-customised charging cables will cause the same phenomenon that you may have experienced when replacing your mobile phone charger, namely that it suddenly becomes much hotter and you quickly order a brand new one.

The future is electric

The more you immerse yourself in the subject as a private user or employer, the more questions are likely to arise. Some aspects of electric driving are already far advanced and others are still in their infancy.

According to many, a primary solution lies with the car industry. They could, for example, force manufacturers to develop better battery technology.
In our opinion, it is best to make informed decisions. Perhaps you should do a lot of research yourself and follow new developments closely. Fortunately, consultants can also make your search easier or shorter. If only because they refer you to the most reliable source.
We wish you the best, most feasible and at the same time safest solutions for your electric car!

Seekurico Ltd

Rode Kruisstraat 49
3540 Herk-de-Stad (B)

info@seekurico.be
Phone +32 (0)474 37 94 63

VAT BE 0683.484.566

Let’s meet!