E.Scooters burst into flames

[Mups]

Two house fires in London caused when an E.scooter, and an e.bike burst into flames while on charge.
The people escaped in the first fire, but their dog was killed.

In the second fire, again, all four people got out but their dog was found dead inside.

Apart from the danger of these scooters,  what kind of people would leg it, and leave their dog shut in??
4 people here,  you'd think one of them could have saved their dog.  It must have been terrified as the flames got closer.

Seems like electric cars, and now electric bikes and scooters could all be unsafe.


https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/2025-news/february/urgent-warning-after-london-homes-gutted-and-two-dogs-killed-less-than-24-hours-apart-in-e-bike-and-e-scooter-fires/

[JBR]

Two house fires in London caused when an E.scooter, and an e.bike burst into flames while on charge.
The people escaped in the first fire, but their dog was killed.

In the second fire, again, all four people got out but their dog was found dead inside.

Apart from the danger of these scooters,  what kind of people would leg it, and leave their dog shut in??
4 people here,  you'd think one of them could have saved their dog.  It must have been terrified as the flames got closer.

Seems like electric cars, and now electric bikes and scooters could all be unsafe.


https://www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/2025-news/february/urgent-warning-after-london-homes-gutted-and-two-dogs-killed-less-than-24-hours-apart-in-e-bike-and-e-scooter-fires/

Well, I would never have an EV, for two reasons.  You hear of them bursting into flames without warning, but also their disadvantages are long charging times and relatively short range, and also rapid depreciation of value.

Having said that, I regularly visit 'DIY Not' forum and the EV fans insist that ICEs are more likely to burst into flames than EVs.  They haven't convinced me, though!

[Mups]

Well, I would never have an EV, for two reasons.  You hear of them bursting into flames without warning, but also their disadvantages are long charging times and relatively short range, and also rapid depreciation of value.

Having said that, I regularly visit 'DIY Not' forum and the EV fans insist that ICEs are more likely to burst into flames than EVs.  They haven't convinced me, though!

And the EV road tax is going to increase rapidly too,  although I don't understand it properly.


Quote:

" From 1 April, all BEVs will be subject to £10 VED in the first year of ownership, followed by annual VED of £195 currently in years 2-6 (£975), for a total of £985.

 For BEVs more than £40,000, an additional £425 is currently charged annually in years 2-6 (£2,125) on top of standard VED, to give a total of £3,110.

[klondike]

For BEVs more than £40,000

and that is most of them - its the RRP not the price paid which has been heavily discounted because they aren't selling enough of them to meet the ZEV mandate,

[Scrumpy]

If these (things) can burst in to flames they are a potential danger...
People know of the risk when they purchase them, it has been spoken of often.. .. So....

I feel so sad about those poor dogs who lost their lives.

[JBR]

" From 1 April, all BEVs will be subject to £10 VED in the first year of ownership, followed by annual VED of £195 currently in years 2-6 (£975), for a total of £985.

 For BEVs more than £40,000, an additional £425 is currently charged annually in years 2-6 (£2,125) on top of standard VED, to give a total of £3,110.

A cheap tax of only £10 in the first year is, I'm sure, intended to attract more people to buy the damned things.  Then, once they've dropped themselves in it, they'll be paying a lot more and I'm sure interest will suddenly wane.

[klondike]

Businesses lease them because of the tax breaks. As those leases come to an end the leasing companies are getting their fingers burned by the deflation and future leases will have much smaller residual values and so cost considerably more. Whether that will dampen business keenness on them I don't know.

The secondhand ones coming off lease are proving to be a hard sell. Technology has moved on and they are jaded compared to new EVs plus the risk of an out of warranty battery failure puts anybody with much sense off buying them.

Around 50% of UK properties have no reserved parking space where they can be charged overnight. Public charging is inconvenient and very expensive.

So overall they cost too much to buy and run and are inconvenient on anything beyond local use for many people.

The low end of the ICE market can provide reliable cars for well under £5,000. There is no way anybody would risk a £5k secondhand EV that could become expensive to dispose of scrap at any moment.

The grid couldn't possibly cope with 100% of the current cars being EVs without billions being invested to upgrade it.

Transit type EV vans are useless as they need too much time off road being charged plus they are stupidly expensive.

What's not to hate?

[Mups]

If these (things) can burst in to flames they are a potential danger...
People know of the risk when they purchase them, it has been spoken of often.. .. So....

I feel so sad about those poor dogs who lost their lives.

I bet they didn't forget to grab their mobile phones though!!   Don't matter if the dogs fry. 

[Alex]

Very sad, your dog or cat would be the first thing to grab, after all they're family.

[Mups]

Very sad, your dog or cat would be the first thing to grab, after all they're family.

That's how I feel too, Alex.

Surely no one would leave their children behind,  so why their dogs?