There are recent news reports that a battery from a Tesla crash has reignited multiple times while in a tow yard, e.g.
It's not clear what caused the reignitions - possibly internal shorts festering due to the prior mechanical and thermal stress.
This is worth keeping in mind when dealing with damaged packs and cells. They can be highly unpredictable. Externally they might appear fine (and possibly even appear to function fine), but they may have internal damage that could lead to thermal runway without warning at some future date. Treat them with extreme caution.
Note: if the news link is paywalled then you can get past it by refreshing the page then very quickly typing escape a few times (before the paywall popup occurs).
Diaz said:On the day of the crash, Tesla engineers dismantled about 25 percent of the battery. About five-and-a-half hours after the crash, the fire department determined the Model X was safe enough to be towed away. Mountain View firefighters escorted the tow truck to the yard, in case the battery re-ignited.
The battery reignited twice in the storage yard within a day of the accident and again six days later on March 29. Two weeks later, in an effort to avoid more fires, the NTSB and Tesla performed a battery draw down to fully de-energize it, Diaz wrote in the memo.
It's not clear what caused the reignitions - possibly internal shorts festering due to the prior mechanical and thermal stress.
This is worth keeping in mind when dealing with damaged packs and cells. They can be highly unpredictable. Externally they might appear fine (and possibly even appear to function fine), but they may have internal damage that could lead to thermal runway without warning at some future date. Treat them with extreme caution.
Note: if the news link is paywalled then you can get past it by refreshing the page then very quickly typing escape a few times (before the paywall popup occurs).
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