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Comment by emteycz | Hacker News Reader

Don't let this make you think this is a general feature of electric buses. There is an electric bus fleet (at least 20 buses, probably more) in Hradec Kralove, CZ for 5+ years now and it has never caught fire - and it's always the best bus ride I ever had, and it's also much better for the city environment (I mean loudness and smell)...

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It's likely enough these buses were in service for close to 5 years without a fire, from 2016:

https://insideevs.com/news/327483/bollore-introduces-12-mete...

Pulling them out of service while they try to figure out the cause of the fires isn't unreasonable.

Here's an article (+video) about a non-electric bus that caught fire.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-12/cctv-captures-sydney-...

More importantly buses catch on fire in Rome regularly and they are not electric.

Except that it is next to impossible to stop a fully charged battery fire. The most efficient way is to throw the vehicle in a pool of water. But even if you manage this feat, the battery can catch fire again once remove from water.

'Bout the same with a gasoline tank, no?

You can smother a fuel fire, a lithium ion battery fire will continue without oxygen.

With large batteries, once they heat up to the point where they are burning it's tough to cool them back down enough to extinguish the fire.

All motorized vehicles can catch fire.

I guess you could design trams or electric trains that cannot catch fire. Without fuel and batteries you do not need to have that much flammable things on board.

Plastic trim, seat and seat covers, liners, floors are all flammable, insulation on wiring, lots of stuff. An all-stainless steel interior would be very amusing, though.

While true, what causes the fires? That’s important. Non-electric vehicle fires are most often caused by external causes, not something inherent in the design or during normal operation.

Cooling system breaks down. Gas drips onto hot exhaust.

What varies is the rate of thermal runaway.

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