You have lithium ion batteries all around you. In your phone, your laptop, your tablet and almost any other portable electronic device. You are at a much greater risk of catching fire from your cell phone than from a car Li-ion battery.

 

Hmm, I've never heard of any issues with hybrids randomly catching fire. The only context I know of is when things are plugged in for charging, they might burst into flame, be it a plug-in vehicle (hybrid or EV), or a phone, or whatever. But a hybrid just sitting there unpowered has no reason to explode. Otherwise, we'd all have to be worried about our 12v batteries, which are in every vehicle.

 

One more thing for those who fear Li-ion batteries. Let me remind you that your car is filled in with chemical substance that is much more flammable than a battery. It is very volatile and can catch fire from almost any ignition source, no matter how small. It is transported through rubber hoses that are prone to aging and cracking. Your rear passenger are sitting on top of a virtual bomb. This substance is called GASOLINE. If you are afraid of car fires, you should never, ever ride in a gasoline car. You should immediate swap your gasoline car for a diesel (which is less flammable), ride a bicycle (but God forbid an e-bike), ride a horse or simply walk.
It takes a lot of energy to ignite a Li-ion battery. Yes, they can catch fire in a serious accident or when short-circuited, for example submerged in sea water. But gasoline cars are actually easier to ignite in an accident because gasoline can easily spill and requires a minimal amount of energy to ignite. What's more, Li-ion batteries don't burst into flame instantly like gasoline does. They take a while to heat up enough to actually develop a full-blown fire. Their only downside is that once on fire they are more difficult to extinguish than a gasoline fire.
For every car equipped with Li-ion battery that catches fire, there are at least a few dozen of "normal" car fires. They simply don't make it into the news because people love bashing new technologies. Anything that is new or a minority (of any type) makes an easy target.

 

Read that hybrids have a higher incident of catching on fire, the lowest is electric cars, followed by gas.

 

Safe unless dunked in water. I recall my 8th grade chemistry class and the prof showing us a beaker of water. Then he dropped the tiniest piece of a white little chuck half the size of a BB.

WOW - it was lithium and boy does it not like water - Instant Poof Smoke and Flames a few inches high.

All from something smaller than a BB. Again autos with lithium batts are Safe under normal conditions.

Super bad accident tearing it all apart is another thing but that would be bad even without lithium batts.

Luck to us All.

 

Safe unless dunked in water. I recall my 8th grade chemistry class and the prof showing us a beaker of water. Then he dropped the tiniest piece of a white little chuck half the size of a BB.

WOW - it was lithium and boy does it not like water - Instant Poof Smoke and Flames a few inches high.

All from something smaller than a BB. Again autos with lithium batts are Safe under normal conditions.

Super bad accident tearing it all apart is another thing but that would be bad even without lithium batts.

Luck to us All.

Not an appropriate example, the Li-ion batteries in cars don't contain metallic Li (which is highly reactive with water), rather the Li is tied up in an oxide compound, typically LICoO2 (or another) which serves an the anode. The main combustable component is the organic solvent based electrolyte and even if damaged it usually takes some time for a fire to fully develop. There's much more flammable organic solvent in the gas tank, as well as explosive vapors - all instantly available.

 

Cars are already filled with flammable substances like oil and gasoline and usully everything is fine. I wouldn't worry.

 

10 gallons of gasoline have the approximate energy of 335 kilowatt hours or 28 pounds of TNT. We've just accepted that we're driving around in a potential flaming bomb. Just buy the Hybrid and enjoy the great fuel mileage and don't worry about the battery.

 

Where are all the garages and houses burned down from ICE fires? I've seen numerous instances of this from EV's being charged (different from OP's Camry hybrid). Where are all the damaged lead acid battery fires?

Insurance companies are starting to figure out that liquid state lithium ion batteries pose a unique risk. These fires are a nmagnitude of order hotter, and require maybe 2 orders of magnitude more water to put out. Body shops and wrecking yards are also starting to figure this out and the savvier ones realize they have to space EVs much further apart from each other and from everything else than they do with ICE vehicles.

 

Gasoline cars are much more likely to catch fire than BEVs. Here is a summary article from MotorTrend, and the link to the original source (in Swedish). Sweden keeps a close track on BEV fires.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/you-are-wrong-about-ev-fires/

https://rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/29438.pdf

There is a big difference between using solid data (like engineers and scientists do), vs. believing in conspiracy theories based on cherry-picked information. The Japanese have a special term for it, and the translation is "the danger of illusion of knowledge", because a little, spotty knowledge is more dangerous than ignorance.

 

And then there are all the other lithium based devices causing just a hair of havoc - FAA: Lithium battery fires on flights now occur nearly twice a week

 

And then there are all the other lithium based devices causing just a hair of havoc - FAA: Lithium battery fires on flights now occur nearly twice a week

in NYC, electric bikes have become a huge fire problem. Apartment buildings have burned down as a result of electric bike batteries. In fairness to EVs, e-bikes are largely unregulated, so the absolute cheapest batteries are being used in low cost e-bikes.

Another aspect of the fire risk is how quickly lithium ion battery fires spread. There is a video on Youtube where fire specialists set up a house with cameras and I think it was an e-bike battery in which they induced thermal runaway. The fire spread so quickly that it was like the entire room exploded into flames. This contributes to the enhanced lethality of lithium-ion battery fires - you can be overcome by fire and smoke very quickly compared to more normal fires.