Speaking objectively, there has been a lot of online discussion about the recent incident of a burnt-out ORA R1, and I have noted a variety of voices and opinions. The majority of views suggest that the battery of the ORA R1 caused the fire while it was charging. However, after watching the video footage of the incident multiple times, I don’t believe the probability of the battery causing the fire was too great. This is because the flames in the video mainly originated from the bottom of the car and did not spread too quickly. Furthermore, the firefighters were able to extinguish the fire with water alone, indicating that the fire did not have the characteristics of a battery fire.
Additionally, if the battery had been the cause of the fire, there could have been a possibility of a secondary explosion. Hence, I believe that the ORA R1 would not have caught on fire solely because of a battery issue. The car burned at a relatively slow speed, and the body of the car remained intact. Moreover, the charging cable in the video was inserted into a charging pile, which further indicates that the car was unlikely to catch fire while charging. Anyway, let’s wait for the official response and not speculate too much.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.