My guess,
I think if the lithium sheet were exposed to water it would react the same, charged or not. The reaction is natural between two elements and doubtfully has anything to do with the amount of charge.

As I understand it, the components of lithium ion batters and self ignite if hot enough and do not require oxygen to keep on burning. So what would we expect to happen in a car crash?

Either it's the Apocalypse, or your doctor recommended it, after your heart attack.

I had a 1971 Pinto (recall completed). I put a 302 V-8 in it, with a C4 automatic, and a limited slip 8.8" rear end out of a 1972 Ford Bronco. That thing was awesome!

The Pinto issue was ridiculous. It was a great car. As good or better than the Jap crap of the age.

Temperature from heat.

Lithium Ion (and all) rechargable cells have an internal impedance (resistance). When current goes through this resistance, during discharge (operation) and charging, it generates heat, and increases temperature. The smaller the cells the bigger the challenge in removing the heat.

EV battery packs are energy dense, more and more as the attempt to reach operation (never chemical) parity with combustion fuel. Since they are getting smaller and smaller, the same heat increases the temperature faster (less thermal mass). Almost all the EV packs I am familiar with are actively cooled. Air or other coolant is circulated within them.

We make an Energy Magazine for the US Navy. It is a large, rechargable battery pack to decouple directed energy weapons from the ship's distribution system. The requirement are that cell failures do NOT cascade to adjacent cell trays. Testing is severe. Of course this battery uses commercial batteries (18650 et al) like EVs, however, the physical protections limit the energy density somewhat. They should be safe unless hit directly with an actual weapon (Navy round or missile. Small arms are one of the tests we much conduct.

Thanks! I figured there could be a difference but didn't know how much of a difference. So the organic electrolyte, since these "spontaneous combustion" events have and do occur, what is the catalyst that sets it off? Poor containment? A break in containment?

I have a bunch of those Li energizer batteries and now I have to go toss one in a bucket with water. Not sure if it will matter if the battery is dead and drained or not but I do have to try it.

Please consult general statistics.

If a Tesla burns: OH THAT IS NEWS. (due to being quite rare even on a per-model basis)

If a gas car burns, eh, that isn't news. Yet it happens all the time.

Yes sure do had my cousin's daughter and boyfriend rear ended in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel through way into the tube by a 18 wheeler their caskets were head to head.

I’ve sold Fords since 1973. The Pinto thing was tragic but overblown (no pun intended ) . What was not publicized was the fact that they had just filled the gas tank and forgot to put the cap back on, they pulled over because of that. The idiot who hit them was searching the floor for a joint he dropped and wasn’t looking up. Perfect recipe for disaster. For the time, the Pinto wasn’t a bad car.

Except it is completely wrong. Let's stop being wrong.

This is a lithium primary cell. It is not rechargable, and does have a lithium electrode.

Tesla and other EVs use Lithium Ion cells. They are rechargable, and DO NOT contain lithium in metallic form. The reason lithium ion cells are flammable is the organic electrolyte, NOT the lithium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium...

I use this video in my class to explain alkaline metals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m55kg...

I will drive my beautiful gas juice burning beauty until she runs no more. Gas prices may keep going up and I will find a way to pay for it because there is no way in hell I am going to endanger my life and those I love by climbing aboard a match waiting to ignite.

The Ford Pinto issue was a debunked scam, thanks to TV magic.

Just tenderize the rough ones.
My dad and brother would weight and seal glass milk jugs with calcium carbonate within. Hardly a soul in the McGilvray Bottoms to complain.

not sure how lithium would ehnahce the flavor of the fish

not that i eat fish
in fact, you see me eating fish, the Apocalypse is here

Making fishing and Fourth of July more fun than ever!

yup
you are sitting on a bomb.....

thanks biden the usurper