Lithium batteries seem to blow up a lot or a lot more than they should. People say that this doesn't matter for the best made batteries, which is fair in those cases, but judging safety relative to an ideal is not wise.
Its also absolutely terrible for the local environment to mine it. That should be well known by now (e.g. effects in Bolivia / Chile).
I'm more interested to see where Catl and Faradion or others go with sodium ion technology. Zinc and potassium are also good candidates too. For now, the lithium show continues though unfortunately.
Compared to ICE cars, EV car fires are not that common. There are a couple of hundred people that die in ICE vehicle related fires and around 170000 cars that catch fire every year in the US. Check here for a breakdown of ways that can happen:
https://www.consumernotice.org/personal-injury/vehicle-safet...
Here's a beautiful quote for you: "There are more than 19 vehicle fires every hour in the United States. They account for 1 in every 8 calls that fire departments respond to."
That puts the handful of burning EVs that catch the news once in a while a bit in perspective. It does happen but not that often. Even if you consider there are about 20x more ICE vehicles sold in the US, it's still quite a lot in comparison.
Anyway, lithium battery fires are comparatively slow so mostly people just get out of the vehicle. Basically, you stop the car, get out and call the firemen. Petrol tanks going boom is less common than Hollywood movies make it seem but still, they occasionally do blow up with people still inside the car. Not a good place to be when a few gallons of fuel is combusting. Hence a couple hundred casualties every year.
Point taken on EVs! My only experience is using them for robot builds and it may be the quality of the battery thats at issue.
In comparison to fossil fuels lithium is obviously way better but I think long term I would prefer to use sodium based batteries due to their abundance, ease of manufacture, and potential lower extraction-related pollution. Explosion related concerns are not the best counter argument.
Think about how much easier it would be to extract sodium. If half the effort went into making those batteries better the lithium scramble could have a chance of ending. Zinc bromine is another good option which would be relatively ok in terms of availability.
Its also absolutely terrible for the local environment to mine it. That should be well known by now (e.g. effects in Bolivia / Chile).
I'm more interested to see where Catl and Faradion or others go with sodium ion technology. Zinc and potassium are also good candidates too. For now, the lithium show continues though unfortunately.