A state-owned public transport operator in Paris, France, the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens, has pulled out 149 electric buses from its fleet after two of them spontaneously exploded within the same month.

Battery fires in electric vehicles, according to Forbes, can happen due to two reasons. One is a car crash that damages individual cells in the battery, which can eventually lead to a fire engulfing other cells and subsequently the entire automobile. This, according to Forbes, was the issue with early Teslas. The other reason is manufacturing defects.

From the 2021 Forbes article…. GM has traced the problem (of battery fires on the Bolt leading to a $1.8B recall) to manufacturing defects at the plant run by its battery supplier, a subsidiary of LG Chem. (Same manufacturer of batteries for the utility scale storage fires at APS and SRP)

Battery manufacturers—and the automakers they serve—contend there have been significant improvements in the technology, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk repeatedly insisting that the risk of an EV battery pack catching fire has been way overblown.

Nonetheless, it looks like we have some work to do.