> In 2022, a vessel carrying about 4,000 vehicles caught fire in the Atlantic and ended up sinking despite efforts to tow it to safety. A year later another ship with close to 3,000 cars on board caught fire near the Dutch coast.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58395055-dead-in-the-wat...
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-coast-guard-responding-carg...
https://www.porsche.com/usa/models/taycan/taycan-models/tayc...
Since most EVs are new I would guess the statistics is mostly applicable to fairly new cars, and so should also be applicable to brand new cars.
One caveat is there may be some EVs from less reputable Chinese car companies that may fall outside these statistics, since they’ve not been sold in the countries where I’ve checked (Northern Europe and USA). Some smaller Chinese companies cut a lot of corners, and they have had an explosive growth of EV car companies.
ICE cars do this all the time. It doesn't make the news as much as a brand new product doing that.
Granted, the "EVs are less likely to start fires" take is also misleading. It's not usually doing a "like for like" comparison, because the majority of ICE fires are in very old and poorly maintained cars. Things like wires chewed through by rats, oil leaking out of gaskets and accumulating, stupid wiring for speakers, etc.
It will depend how gracefully the average EV ages when owned by the average person who ignores maintenance.
Keep in mind we've had old lithium ion batteries for two decades now, and we don't see your average phone store randomly burning down. Or those kiosks you can sell absolutely clapped out, old phones to. How often do those burn down?