Electric Car Fires in China Should Set Off Alarms
The government is doing everything it can to spur sales of new-energy vehicles. First, it should stop them from spontaneously combusting.
It’s hard not to buy electric in Beijing.
Photographer: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty ImagesSomewhere in Shanghai, a camera caught what looks like a Model S manufactured by Tesla Inc. bursting into flames in a parking garage. On Sunday night, the video began circulating on social media. Hours later, NIO Inc., a Shanghai-based NASDAQ-listed electric vehicle maker, announced that one of its ES8 models had burst into flames during a repair in Xi’an.
Elsewhere in the world, either of these accidents would be major public relations challenges for their manufacturers. But in China, where the quality and safety of electric vehicles and their batteries have been increasingly called into question, the scandals only underscored longstanding issues with China's electric-vehicle push. According to one recent survey ricocheting across the Web, nearly 70 percent of Chinese respondents said they regretted buying a new-energy vehicle (NEV).