BYD Qin Plus DM-i Catches Fire in Guangdong

According to a video circulating on the Internet on February 13, a vehicle, identified as a BYD Qin Plus DM-i, parked on the roadside partially ignited. No one was hurt in the incident. The Chinese EV maker responded that the battery did not burn during the fire but that further investigation needs to explain what happened.

The Qin Plus DM-i was launched on March 8, 2021, and is available in two models, one with a battery life of 55km and the other with a battery life of 120km.

With the explosive growth of new energy vehicles, safety has been a concern among owners. There have been dozens of accidents last year involving the spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles from the likes of Tesla, Geely, XPeng and others.

In mid-April last year, a XPeng G3 near Metropolitan Plaza, Tianhe District, Guangzhou spontaneously ignited while at a charging station. Last year, a Tesla Model 3, a high-end new energy pure electric vehicle, was also involved in several spontaneous combustion accidents. Fortunately, no casualties occurred.

Most of the vehicles involved in the accidents are pure electric models. There has been no consistent time or place that the incidents occurred as they have been reported to have happened under several operating conditions, including normal driving, idle, charging or in a collision with another vehicle.

Electric vehicles are more likely to catch fire during the charging process. The direct reason is that the battery system is undergoing some form of misuse, such as overcharging, low-temperature and high-rate charging, as well as high-temperature charging.

In order to improve the supporting insurance policies related to new energy vehicles, in mid-December of last year, the Insurance Association of China issued regulations saying that owners of new energy vehicles can gradually purchase exclusive commercial insurance for their vehicles.

SEE ALSO: BYD and Great Wall Motors Exchange Trademarks

“New energy vehicles use batteries as energy storage devices. Therefore, in addition to traditional traffic accidents, other accidents caused by the ignition of power batteries constitutes a new risk factor,” the Association said. “For these risks, product insurance needs to be upgraded.”