New China Electric Vehicle Battery Fire
China Daily has today reported another serious incident concerning an accident involving an electric taxi. It appears that a high speed collison occurred in Shenzhen when a BYDe6 taxi caught fire after it was hit from behind by a sports car travelling at a reported speed of 180 kilometers per hour.
Friday 16th June
On May 26th a Nissan GTR sports car diven by a suspected drunk driver smaksed into the rear of two taxis, one caught fire in which the driver and two passengers died at the scene .
The other taxi rolled over and the driver was slightly injured.Police haves said that they are investigating the cause of the fire and whether or not there had been an explosion.
The manufactures, BYD said that the e6 has passed authorative crash tests and meets national safety standards. It is said that in the past two years, e6 taxis have driven a comibned 15 million kilometers and have been involved in 18 previous rear- end accidents, but none have caused fire or resulted in casualties.
There are approximately 300 e6 electric taxis on the road in addition to 200 electric buses made by the same company. It is possible that the explosion was cause by an explosion to a traditional petrol vehicle.
This incident follows the spontaneous explosion to the electric taxi in Hangzhou that has been extensively reported on this blog and also the incident in the USA where a Chevrolet Volt caught fire in storage some three weeks after a severe crash test. 
Originally posted 2012-06-15 00:00:00.
