Here’s a statement that shouldn’t be controversial by now: Electric cars are less likely to catch fire than combustion-powered cars, but battery pack fires are fiercer and harder to actually stop than most combustion vehicle fires due to the heat and intensity of thermal runaway. It’s a modern problem we’re still trying to solve, so a company in China decided to employ the Patrick Starr solution of taking the thermal runaway and shoving it somewhere else. Rapidly, I may add.
The resulting video footage is dramatic, showing what appears to be a pyrotechnic solution that simply launches a smoking battery pack out to the side. The pack appears to travel more than the length of a the Chery iCar 03T, so let’s call it 10 to 20 feet. It’s some serious James Bond stuff, but also the sort of tech that could cause an international incident.
Depending on where you are, a lot of things can be within 10 to 20 feet of a vehicle. Imagine driving up to an international border, stopping at the checkpoint, and having your battery pack decide to launch itself into the guard booth next to your vehicle. Everyone on Twitter will think you’re a terrorist, but you’re just the victim of an unfortunately-timed battery pack fire and questionably implemented projectile technology. Or, imagine the headlines if a battery pack ejects at the wrong moment in traffic. “421 Dead After Battery Pack Hits Clown Car”. Sorry kids/in-laws/neurodivergent partner with a PT Barnum special interest/pet elephant looking for its long-lost relatives, no circus tonight.
It’s worth noting that several vehicles have notable safety-focused implementations of pyrotechnics. The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG has exploding bolts for its gullwing door hinges because being trapped in an upside-down vehicle is bad. The Lexus LC 500 and certain Jaguar F-Types have pyrotechnic rams that shove their hoods upward on impact for pedestrian safety. Many modern cars have pyro fuses that rapidly disconnect power in the event of a collision, but guess what all of these things have in common? That’s right, they aren’t firing a rhino’s worth of batteries towards unsuspecting bystanders.
So, whose idea is this battery pack launcher, anyway? While the technology was shown off at an event called the “Power Battery Launch Technology Demonstration and Exchange Meeting” and the banner on the side of the vehicle suggests involvement by the China Automobile Collision Repair Technology Research Center, thing are a little murky now that once-said to be involved party Joyson appears to have denounced the technology. As the Epoch Times reports:
Joyson Electronics responded to mainland media yesterday, saying that they do not have any form of cooperative development agreement with the “China Collision Repair Technology Research Center”.
It is reported that the China Automobile Collision Repair Technology Research Center belongs to the Matt Group, which owns independent brands such as Welion, BANTAM, and MAXIMA.
Regardless of who’s responsible, this battery pack launcher falls along the lines of “cool, now never do that again.” An automotive battery pack is a huge thing to have as a projectile, and turning a battery pack fire into a problem for whoever’s next to you is just plain inconsiderate. If you were ever a dumb teenager trying to start a barbecue with way too much lighter fluid, your first thought after “Oh my god, my eyebrows” probably wasn’t to chuck the whole thing onto the neighbor’s lawn, yeah?
[Editor’s Note: I think everybody is missing the real, less obvious application here: ultra-fast and exciting battery swaps! Imagine pulling into a battery swap station as your battery blasts out one side, and a new battery blasts into the other! Then an attendant yanks your door open and smacks you, hard, just to keep the vibe going! This could be the future! – JT]
Top graphic image: China Automobile Collision Repair Technology Research Center
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Cool. Now get this tech to Formula E for F1-like pit stops
A ‘Collision Repair Research’ organisation that has invented a way to *make more stuff collide* is mighty suspicious.
Isn’t this a Star Trek thing? Aren’t they always ejecting warp cores, at least in all the new (1990s and on) series?
I feel like the video should cut to Torch, fighting off the flying batteries with a chainsaw.
This coming, out of China, makes me think of DJI drones deciding to eject batteries. I don’t think they do that. The thought just makes me laugh. (I’ve got a couple of them and they don’t do that.)
Many years ago, in my TV Ops Mgr days, a photographer under my management, somehow kicked an Anton-Bauer battery off the back of his Ikegami camera as he was shooting a high school football game out of the open window of our station’s Bell 206. The battery landed in the field but didn’t hit anybody. Everyone on the field had a helmet that could probably take the hit, but those batteries were maybe three pounds (1.5 kg) and had sharp edges and non-compressible housings. If it had fallen out over the stands, it could have killed someone.
The gyro-zooms, a few years later, were a lot better and safer. And so are the light drones you can use now for a huge fraction of the price of flying a turbine helicopter.
I’m so happy to be retired. Sometimes, when I watch events, I’m curious to see what gear the still and video photographers are using (and now they can shoot video with what just used to be still cameras) and then just let it go. That’s not my responsibility anymore.
When I started shooting video in 1980, that stuff weighed 60+ pounds. Or more if you needed batteries for lighting. It was even heavier before I started. Those poor guys. I know some great female shooters, but they very few when I started and almost none before I did. The gear was just so heavy.
But my time with it (39 years) was enough to mess up my lower back, along with a lot of my colleagues. Some got disability compensation. Mine didn’t catch up with me a while longer while I was working in software.
But being a news photographer was an adrenalin rush. And also, a solemn responsibility to tell the truth. Show the truth. We didn’t have an agenda. We probably weren’t smart enough to have one.
Any modern US car has a zillion explosive devices in it. You know, Definitely Safe air bags!
Don’t take it out if you don’t know what you’re doing! It’ll kill ya!
…after you take it out though, definitely use it to launch a GI Joe guy into orbit. From a safe distance, of course.
I’ve got one I need to dispose of. Any tips?
I actually, genuinely, do not know how you’re supposed to dispose of those things. Obviously for safety reasons I don’t actually suggest you blow it up. They are indeed violent explosive charges.
Oh, I’m gonna blow it up for sure. Haven’t put much effort into figuring out how, nor how much of a blast zone to leave. Or how much clean up will be needed, which affects where I do the deed.
Put the mechanism on the roof and use it for pizza delivery.
Geez. Do you have to use the epoch times as the source?