Comments on: BYD Bringing Plug-in Hybrid Electric Sports Car & 100% Electric Supercar To Market

By: paintdot

paintdot — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 10:35:00 +0000

The car that caught on fire was not a bus, it was called “E6″. The bus is doing all good and now it is even MADE-IN-USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_electric_bus

By: Burnerjack

Burnerjack — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 22:22:00 +0000

Both points are interesting. Fuel Injected engines tend not to “cough” up through the intake, at least before you add forced induction anyway. I can certainly see you’re point in car accident induced fire being reported as an accident with the detail of the resulting fire possibly being omitted, but, that runs contrary to the MSM’s penchant to sensationalize.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Looking at the graph I’m wondering if a lot of the fires aren’t carburetor fires and a big reason for the drop is a move to fuel injection. I’ve seen a few carb fires (had one) that didn’t burn the car up, but had they been in an urban area would have brought the fire department out and created a data point.

The last US production carbureted car was in 1990.

And I’d bet few people die in a car fire. They die in a crash in which the car burns. The fire secondary to the crash.

By: Burnerjack

Burnerjack — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 22:58:00 +0000

Fair enough reply. As the first comment noted, the stat was all vehicular fires, from any and all causes. Not just from fuel, but, that aside, I watch several news broadcasts everyday, yet I can only recall the last one involving a limo which killed
5 women in May. I still find amazing that all these fires are ignored by a media craving anything sensational to exploit.
In theory, another 90K or so have occurred since.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 22:45:00 +0000

Will this do?

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/11/chart-of-the-day-vehicle-fires-edition/

By: Burnerjack

Burnerjack — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Nearly 550 gas fires per day and none are on the news? At all? Please produce some corroborating evidence. Your stats seem less than probable. What percentage of quoted stats are just made up? 90%?

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 19:19:00 +0000

200,000 gasmobile fires per year in the US.

I came close to dying in one. I can appreciate the heat….

By: Felix Hoenikker

Felix Hoenikker — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 18:53:00 +0000

Ya probably, either way I’d take a burning pack over a sloshing pool of fire. Electric shorts can happen in gasmobiles too.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 18:32:00 +0000

Having never seen a report of a BYD bus fire and having seen the media way overplay ever single EV problem I suspect you might be thinking about the fire in the BYD taxi.

The one that started with an electric short in the wiring after the taxi was hit by a gasmobile going around 100 MPG. The one where the interior fabric in the taxi caught on fire and spread to the car batteries. The one in which some, not all batteries burned.

By: Felix Hoenikker

Felix Hoenikker — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 18:19:00 +0000

Hahaha, can’t find a link, was about 3 years ago and the bus wasn’t in use at the time. I agree batteries can be far safer than gasoline, especially if you don’t make a point of combusting them.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 03:17:00 +0000

But you can always tell Americans from Canadians when they travel.

We sew maple leaf flags on our packs in an attempt to disguise ourselves.

By: Ronald Brakels

Ronald Brakels — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 03:02:00 +0000

Canada is still Up Over and not Down Under. The US wears it as a hat. It’s cold, wet, and beautiful and the people there have really strange accents but to people from other countries you all sound the same. In other words Canda is the United State’s New Zealand.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 02:56:00 +0000

Come on. Bieber isn’t ours.

He belongs to you, part of your Commonwealth.

By: Ronald Brakels

Ronald Brakels — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 02:53:00 +0000

I don’t think it’s you. But there was a perceptible decrease in gravity here when Bieber did his Down Under tour.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 02:39:00 +0000

Always glad to be of assistance…

By: Ronald Brakels

Ronald Brakels — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 01:25:00 +0000

I’m not aware of any BYD bus fires. Do you have a link? I am aware of a BYD taxi that caught on fire after a high speed accident where it was hit by a sports car and then hit a tree and the impact killed all three passengers. Fortunately they are working on making batteries less flammable than gasoline. Oh wait, they’re already there.

By: Ronald Brakels

Ronald Brakels — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 01:15:00 +0000

No, not really. You see, the actual reason Australians don’t fall off the bottom of the earth is because the Nothern Hemisphere sucks so much.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 01:03:00 +0000

That makes stuff cheaper in China doesn’t it?

They don’t have to pay extra for the gluey stuff that keeps things from falling off the bottom….

By: Ronald Brakels

Ronald Brakels — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 00:56:00 +0000

The good news there is China’s current is similar to our own and even the power points are basically identical. (Except ours are of course upside down compared to theirs since we’re down under.)

By: Chris Marshalk

Chris Marshalk — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 23:58:00 +0000

BYD is looking good. Now only if they sold their cars in Australia.