We use them in scooters, bicycles, mobiles, electric cars or to store energy. Their capacity to do so have made them gain market share (in 2023 more than 1.2 billion smartphones and 14 million electric vehicles were sold, according to a study by the QBE insurer) and a key piece of the energy transition, but occasion windows to avoid toxic gases) awaken doubts. Are Lithium Ion batteries safe?
Its main problem has to do with the intensity and duration of the fires caused by lithium, the difficulty when extinguishing them and the toxicity of the smoke of this type of batteries. United Kingdom Firefighters confirm a 93% increase in incidents related to these batteries between 2022 and 2024. The study is presented by the insurer already mentioned and the bikes are linked to a third of the fires recorded in 2024 and it is stated that motorcycles counted 362 fires in 2024, twice as much as in 2022. In this same period, “cars fires increased by 77%. While the number of electric vehicles on the road has more than duplicated in the same period, ”says the analysis.
More and more images of submerged cars are more common for days that when they leave the water they burn again. Do these fires put in question electric mobility? For the Business Association for the Development and Impulse of Electric Mobility in Spain and Portugal (Aedive) there is a lot of misinformation about it. Recently the entity published a technical report in which they claim that electric cars caught less than internal combustion. “The statistics of the countries with a high penetration of the electric vehicle reflect that the probability that an electric is fire is less than that of a combustion in relation to the total number of cars,” says Javier Izquierdo, technical director of Aedive, who confirms that the study is presented at a time when “more and more electricity circulates through our cities and roads and roads –In the first semester of the year there are already 115,710 units enrolled, very close to the total of 2024–. In addition, battery technology is extended more and more generally, also for energy storage applications and uses ».
High intensity
Rafael Moro, vice president of the Spanish Association for the Fight against Fire Aself, says that «the danger of fire and explosion depends on factors such as the environment, design, thermal management and conditions of use. Electric or hybrid vehicles and, in general those gadgets that provide us with mobility, They are affected by greater physical risk, due to impacts, accidents and vibrations. The batteries dedicated to the storage of renewable energy surpluses at home or in any other closed enclosure are less exposed to blows, so the fire risk is lower, provided that the facilities are well designed and implemented ». The entity emphasizes the danger of community garages and proposes to adapt the accesses, improve ventilation, have water sprinklers and even establish independent areas for these cars. It also considers it important to have swimming pools (local and public) to which to take burning vehicles and a lithium battery research center, because they are starting to use more and more in houses to store solar energy and “we will see serious fires.”
The current lithium ion batteries are built based on cells that inside have an anode and a cathode, two separate parts “by a membrane that when it breaks causes its union and a chain reaction. It is the main identified risk, The Thermal Runaway or uncontrolled thermal reaction. It overheats and a thermal reaction begins with a very difficult flame to extinguish. What can cause that membrane to break? A blow, an overload, a drilling or even an increase in temperature, ”says Alberto Conesa, a technician of the QBE insurer.
New designs and extinguishers
«The manufacturer knows these risks and from the battery design solutions are used to minimize them. There is a lot of technology with maximum standards involved to control the risk, ”they say from Aedive. But, in addition, they say, it is essential that the battery is “well treated, that is, you have to avoid mechanical blows, repairs or even homemade manipulations to have greater powers in particular scooters, because all this can be a risk,” says its technical director.
Battery manufacturers have been working for years in new safer batteries that reduce and even partially replace lithium. «The lithium ion battery is of all, the one that accumulates the most energy in a lower volume, so it is the one that cars, toothbrushes, mobiles, etc. But Other types of materials are starting to investigate That, although it does not have the same benefits, they reduce the risks of lithium, for example, those of sodium, an element that is in the sea salt, ”says Alberto Conesa de Qbe.
The technician also explains that new extinguishers are also being developed to better face the fires that have gase encapsulators inside, for example. “Different products are developed that will be marketed soon as the” multi-purpose fluid “in the United Kingdom or the TMF (Thermal Management Fluid), which stops overheating before it occurs.”
Danger in waste management
►The Department of Waste Management of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona alerts an increase in fireproofs in waste treatment plants. «In 2024 there have been four fireplace in municipal waste treatment plants And another one during the month of January 2025. We arrive batteries that should not arrive, from all types of containers, from packaging to organic or remains. When passing through the crushed area there is more danger, as explained from AMB, an entity that affects the need to bring these waste to specialized collection points.