page_title: Plug-in electric vehicle fire incidents
section_title: Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Outlander P-HEV
hierarchical_section_title: Plug-in electric vehicle fire incidents / Electric vehicle incidents / Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Outlander P-HEV
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 三菱アウトランダーPHEV
context_page_description: Plug-in electric vehicle fire incidents have taken place between the introduction of mass-production plug-in electric vehicles in 2010 and 2014, when the battery type was changed to nickel-metal hydride batteries which do not pose the same risk of thermal runaway as lithium-ion batteries. As a result of these incidents, the United States, Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducted a study to establish whether lithium-ion batteries in plug-electric vehicles pose an exceptional fire hazard. The research looked at whether the high-voltage batteries can cause fires when they are being charged, and when the vehicles are involved in an accident.
  Regarding the risk of electrochemical failure, [this] report concludes that the propensity and severity of fires and explosions from the accidental ignition of flammable electrolytic solvents used in Li-ion battery systems are anticipated to be somewhat comparable to or perhaps slightly less than those for gasoline or diesel vehicular fuels.
context_section_description: In March 2013 Mitsubishi Motors reported two separate incidents with lithium-ion batteries used in its plug-in electric cars, one with a Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car and the other with an Outlander P-HEV plug-in hybrid. The battery packs are produced by GS Yuasa, the same company that supplies the batteries for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, whose entire fleet was grounded in January 2013 for battery problems. The lithium-ion battery of an i-MiEV caught fire at the Mizushima battery pack assembly plant on March 18 while connected to a charge-discharge test equipment. Three days later, the battery pack of an Outlander P-HEV at a dealership in Yokohama overheated and melted some of the battery cells, after the vehicle had been fully charged and stood for one day. Nobody was injured in either incident.
  Mitsubishi did not issue a recall but halted production and sales of the two models until it determines the causes of the battery problems. The carmaker advised owners of the Outlander plug-in hybrid to drive only on gasoline mode for the time being. In the case of the i-MiEV, the problem is related with a change in GS Yuasa manufacturing process, and Mitsubishi called fleet-vehicle operators with i-MiEVs whose batteries were made under the same process as those that overheated and is working on a possible fix. In August 2013, and after changing a production process to avoid damaging any batteries, Mitsubishi restarted production of the Outlander plug-in hybrid.
  In May 2019 an Outlander caught fire after immersion in salt water. The vehicle was being used to haul a boat trailer out of the water at a Port Moody boat ramp when the driver lost control. After a tow truck recovered the Outlander, what appears to be the battery pack caught fire.
caption: Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV
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