BYD Tang DM-i has original sin of spontaneous combustion or hidden quality problems for key parts.

On February 17th, a video about a BYD new energy vehicle exploding and burning on a trailer in Yantai, Shandong Province was circulated on the Internet. According to the video, the towed car on the trailer started to emit smoke, then sparks began to flash at the bottom of the car, accompanied by crackling explosions, and finally it began to burn violently, and the whole car was quickly burned beyond recognition.

BYD Tang DM-i exploded and caught fire during consignment.

According to eyewitnesses, the incident occurred at about 1:10 pm on the 17th, near the East Yard of yantai mountain hospital, Guanhai Road, lai shan. At the time of the incident, the trailer was waiting for the green light at the intersection, but the bottom of BYD’s new energy vehicle towed by the car suddenly splashed with sparks, and there was a crackling explosion. Then smoke billowed, which ignited a fire, instantly wrapping the car body, and the car owners in the same industry drove away. At the critical moment, a nearby sprinkler arrived in time to put out the fire, and the fire was completely extinguished by the firefighters who followed, but at this time, this new energy vehicle had been burned to only one body.

At the scene of the accident, Yantai fire rescuers who came out to the police rescue told the verification media that fortunately there was no one in the car at that time and the cause of the fire was under investigation. BYD’s official customer service only said in the next day’s inquiry that the relevant information has not been received, and the specific reasons are still unknown, and it is necessary to wait for the investigation results to determine.

At present, it is not clear whether the car was consigned after the accident or failed to be consigned by itself, so it is impossible to analyze and define the main causes of its spontaneous combustion and fire. However, according to the live video, it can be found that sparks are constantly flashing at the bottom of the vehicle and crackling explosions are heard at the initial stage of the fire. From this, it can be roughly determined that the battery is indispensable for the violent combustion, and even the fire site may be the battery.

Judging from the body of the live video, it should be BYD Tang’s 2021 DM-i model that caught fire. The car was officially launched during the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2021. There are three models in total, and the price range is 189,800-216,800 yuan.

Tang DM-i is a heavyweight model introduced by BYD to replace the fuel version. According to the official statement, "it took nine years to finally produce this subversive model of Pratt & Whitney Volkswagen". The car is equipped with BYD plug-in hybrid system, which is composed of a turbo-charged 1.5Ti high-efficiency engine dedicated to Xiaoyun-plug-in hybrid of Miller cycle and an EHS electric hybrid system, and adopts Ferrous lithium phosphate "blade" battery dedicated to BYD hybrid.

Blade battery is an innovative product that BYD is proud of in the field of power battery. Tang DM-i is equipped with a power Ferrous lithium phosphate "blade" battery, which is different from the lamination process of BYD EV models, and adopts a winding process. Each group of blade batteries has a biscuit-shaped pole core, and a plurality of battery cells are integrated in series inside each pole core, while the whole battery pack is composed of a plurality of pole cores connected in series, and finally packaged into a "blade" battery. One of the outstanding advantages of this battery is that its heat dissipation capacity is good, and the battery uses Ferrous lithium phosphate as the positive electrode, so its performance is relatively stable, so its safety factor is relatively high in theory.

It is precisely because of this that Wang Chuanfu, Chairman and President of BYD’s Board of Directors, once said at the super conference of "Blade battery is unsheathed and safe in the world" on March 29, 2020, "Blade battery embodies BYD’s determination to completely end the safety pain point of new energy vehicles, and it will redefine the safety standard of new energy vehicles." "New energy vehicles equipped with blade batteries will completely erase the word spontaneous combustion from the dictionary of new energy vehicles."

BYD’s "blade" battery became famous in the first world war because of the puncture experiment, and it was spread in the industry. Later, it was fully promoted and applied in all models of BYD’s new energy, and made great contributions to BYD. Supposedly, such an innovative product should completely reassure consumers, but the reality is somewhat embarrassing for Boss Wang.

In fact, not only BYD Tang DM-i, but also Han DM-i, BYD e6, BYD e2, Qin Pro, Yuan EV, Song Pro DM-i, Seals and Dolphins. Just search the network news, and you will find that BYD’s new energy series vehicles have had fire or spontaneous combustion accidents, and some vehicles are still relatively frequent, and they have emerged from time to time on the network.

Original sin or quality problems in key parts

Take the protagonist Tang DM-i as an example. In recent years, spontaneous combustion accidents are not uncommon. For example, on January 26, 2022, some netizens broke the news that a BYD Tang DM-i in Shanghai caught fire on the way to the trailer. This is really a coincidence. The situation is so similar to this accident that Xiaobian thought it was the same incident at first, and then carefully identified the license plate number and confirmed that it was two accidents. This accident eventually led to the complete burning of the car.

Also in Shanghai, on March 19th, one month later, it was revealed that the BYD Tang DM-i newly mentioned by a car advocate in Shanghai spontaneously ignited in the parking space of the community. According to the information provided by the owner and the chat record, the car caught fire at around 5 am that day, which caused the car next to it to be burned to varying degrees. According to the owner, the car was not charged at that time, but just parked there.

This is only a corner of Shanghai, and it is only a short period of incomplete online exposure news. Search those online news that have not been deleted, and you will find that BYD Tang DM-i spontaneous combustion accidents are all over the place, and there are many more.

Objectively speaking, with the widespread use of new energy vehicles, fire accidents are indeed rising. According to the statistics of the Fire and Rescue Bureau of the Emergency Management Department, in 2021, there were 3,000 fire accidents in new energy vehicles nationwide. It seems inevitable that a hot-selling new energy vehicle will have some spontaneous combustion accidents, but the mistake is that BYD Wang’s boss should not talk too much.

What’s more, such an accident is a very disturbing disaster for any individual consumer. If there are casualties in the accident, it will be a family tragedy. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the causes of spontaneous combustion of BYD Tang DM-i, even Qin Pro, Yuan EV, Song Pro DM-i and so on.

On April 29th, 2022, a recall notice issued by the State Administration of Markets indicated that 9663 Tang DM models produced from September 2nd, 2021 to March 14th, 2022 would be recalled from now on. The reason for the recall is that the installation surface of the battery pack trays of these vehicles is uneven due to manufacturing reasons, and there is a risk of water ingress. "This may cause the electrical circuit of the power battery system to fail. In extreme cases, there is a risk of thermal runaway of the power battery, which poses a safety hazard."

On July 29th, 2022, another recall notice issued by the State Administration of Markets revealed that BYD had expanded the recall scope of Tang DM and decided to recall 52,928 Tang DM electric vehicles produced from April 5th, 2021 to April 18th, 2022 from now on. The reason for the recall is that "some vehicle power battery pack trays are at risk of water ingress, which may cause arcing in the high-voltage system and pose a safety hazard."

In fact, people who don’t understand these technical terms, whether it’s thermal runaway or high-voltage system arcing, may not be too concerned. But in other words, if the common people can understand it, it is: the battery is overheated to the limit, which will cause the battery to burn or explode; As for the high-voltage system, it is simpler to pull the arc. Have you ever seen the transformer switch on? "Zizi" sparks with lightning all the way, and the high-temperature arc generated by high voltage and high current can ignite the surrounding combustible materials in an instant.

Therefore, judging from the spontaneous combustion accidents of DM-i in Tang Dynasty, although BYD conducted cold treatment in most cases afterwards, and did not give specific reasons and follow-up news, it is not difficult to find from the official announcement that the quality control of DM-i in BYD Tang did have serious problems that might lead to spontaneous combustion, so that it had to start a recall.

Returning to this consignment spontaneous combustion accident, although the specific reasons are still under investigation, consumers can also reasonably doubt their quality control. In fact, we fully understand consumers’ concern about safety, but we don’t pay so much attention to the cause or process of the accident. Because no matter whether you are short-circuited, flooded, uneven or out of control, as long as your results lead to fire, spontaneous combustion or explosion, there is virtually no difference to consumers-from car burning to "human purgatory (if you can’t run away)".

As a leading new energy vehicle company, we should pay more attention to the reasonable concerns of consumers, especially the safety concerns, and we should not be negligent. After all, vehicle safety involves many aspects, not only batteries, but also supporting systems, body structure, etc. It is an organic whole, and no one can neglect it. If the quality control is neglected, it can also lead to the abandonment of all previous efforts. Therefore, BYD needs to make more efforts in product line quality control and ex-factory quality inspection.