In an EV, many small battery cells make up a battery module, many battery modules go into making a large battery pack, which in turn get put into an electric car.
A myth about battery packs in EVs is that they’re more likely to catch fire than fuel tanks in ICE cars, and that these fires also can’t be put out easily.
EV Firesafe is an Australian EV fire research company. The EV FireSafe June 2023 presentation (PDF, 34.3 MB) shows that only 387 passenger plug-in EVs globally have had a battery fire between 2010 and June 2023. Whereas in comparison to 2020 and 2021 there were over 2,900 petrol or diesel car fires in NSW.
International research conducted in Sweden reported that EVs are twenty times less likely to catch fire than a petrol or diesel car. In this study, EV fires were reported at 0.004% of the total EV fleet whereas, ICE cars were 0.08% of the total ICE fleet. This showcases that it’s less likely for an EV to catch fire when compared to fires related to ICE cars.