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With jumping cars, battery swapping stations, and cars that can float in water, China is leading the world in EV innovation. However, their latest development has caught the internet’s attention. The Chinese Vehicle Collision Repair Technical and Research Centre created a battery bazooka that violently ejects the lithium pack from the side of the car when thermal runaway is detected.
Launching the battery three to six metres away prevents a catastrophic fire that would otherwise destroy the vehicle, but don’t ask about the state of the pedestrians now that a flaming battery weighing hundreds of kilograms has been ejected towards them on the sidewalk.
The development was showcased at a recent event in China for Chery’s iCar 03, a small off-road SUV that awkwardly copies the Land Rover Defender’s design. However, it appears the technology isn’t directly related to Chery but state-owned, FAW-subsidiary Bestune, a car manufacturer and leader in battery-swap technology.
EV battery fires are a rarity in Australia, but they do happen.
While this data is seldom collected on a national or global level to any degree, the Australian organisation EV FireSafe has conducted research that says 772 verified EV battery fires occurred globally among the approximately 40 million plug-in EVs on the road since 2010. Likely, this data doesn’t account for China, where EV fires have been more widespread, so much so that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has been forced to make regulatory changes.
From 2026, all power packs made in China must undergo impact testing on the underside of the cells to assess the casing’s protection capabilities. Once they pass that test, each battery has to withstand 300 individual DC fast-charging cycles without fire, explosion, or signs of short-circuiting. We can’t say how bazooka batteries fall into this, but we’ll find out soon.
EV FireSafe data also says just 11 EV battery fires have been recorded here in Australia as of 1st November 2024: two due to arson, three from garage fires spreading to the car, four high-speed collisions, including one impact from road debris, and two with causes still under investigation. Ultimately, the fact is that EVs are far less likely to catch fire than petrol or diesel vehicles.
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