(KomoNews) Electric vehicles are creating a new challenge for firefighters and first responders in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis warned Thursday that as electric vehicle (EV) batteries corrode, fires begin. Sharing a video of firefighters in Naples putting out a smoking vehicle, he said there are “a ton” of EVs currently disabled from the storm.
There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale. #HurricaneIan pic.twitter.com/WsErgA6evO
— Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis) October 6, 2022
A person can be heard saying the vehicle has already been doused with 1,500 gallons of water, and yet the fire is still going. In a follow-up tweet, Patronis said “it takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely.”
Florida is second in the nation for EVs on the road behind California. As of August, there were more than 95,000 registered EVs in the state, up from 58,000 in 2021.
The Biden administration has taken numerous steps to incentivize Americans to switch to EVs. Upon taking office, President Biden set a goal of ensuring 50% of new cars being EVs by 2030.
When signing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August, Biden also attempted to encourage EV usage by including a $7,500 tax credit for the sale of new ones and $4,000 for used. However, there are multiple conditions sellers must be aware of, including that EVs must be assembled in North America to be eligible, where most of the more popular brands are not.
There is also a manufacturer sales cap, which prevents EVs from companies that have already sold more than 200,000 units from being eligible. This excludes Tesla, General Motors and Toyota.
However, some have tried to put the brakes on the promotion of EVs.
