BYD reports an EV fire incident while battery pack remains intact

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Recent car fire incidents are landing electric vehicles in hot water. After Tesla and NIO's vehicles caught fire in succession this week, BYD, a major NEV maker in China, reported another burning accident on April 24.

BYD announced via its official Sina Weibo account that a BYD e5 car caught fire on April 24 in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province. “After receiving the news, BYD dispatched staff members to the scene immediately. Through an initial investigation, we found out that the fire source is located at the trunk, while the battery pack at the bottom still remained intact. We will further investigate the incident in cooperation with relevant departments until get final results,” said the automaker.       

(Photo source: BYD's official Sina Weibo account)

The company also exposed the photos of the damaged car. In the comments, some netizens gave thumbs up to the unharmed battery pack after suffering a fire lasting half an hour. “The safety accident likelihood of fuel-burning vehicles is no less than that of EVs at all, while it is undeniable that the security incident has become a stronger factor than NEV subsidy phase-out in curbing NEV sales growth,” other people said.

According to BYD's latest sales report, BYD sold 46,825 vehicles in March, among which NEV sales reached 30,075 units with a remarkable year-on-year growth of 115.59%. For the first quarter of the year, the company saw its NEV sales skyrocketed 146.89% year on year to 73,172 vehicles, accounting for 62.23% of its total Q1 sales.