Building code wants smart and firesafe EV chargers that can be shut down remotely

Australian buildings should choose smart electric vehicle (EV) chargers that gives emergency responders a possible way of shutting down a car remotely, says the new Australian Building Code Board (ABCB) guideline on EVs.

The ABCB says the 15 recommendations are low cost and are easy to put in place in order, but will also reduce the risk of substandard equipment or installation practices creating fire dangers as the uptake of EVs increases. 

“Global evidence indicates that EVs are much less likely to be involved in a fire than traditional petrol and diesel vehicles,” said ABCB CEO Gary Rake in a statement.

But he said the new advisory note sets out “some really sensible and low cost things that we can do to make charging safer for our buildings, residents and first responders.”

The guideline revamp was necessary as national policies move to impose EV charging requirements on new builds.

Amendments to the national construction code coming into effect on October 1 demand 10 per cent of parking spaces in retail and office buildings have EV chargers, 20 per cent of spaces in other commercial buildings, and in apartments all spaces must be capable of charging EVs. 

Forecast EV adoption means that expectations are that by the time they’re finished, any building designed and built after October 1 will have all of their EV space spoken for. 

In May, fully battery electric vehicles made up 7.7 per cent of the overall new car market, and the Model Y became the best selling SUV of any type.

The ABCD advisory notice is a guide to handle the risk of fire, many of which are, or should be, standard in buildings anyway such as install fire alarms and maps of fire exits.

It recommends only installing chargers that have been certified as compliant with regulations and only by people who’ve been certified to do so. It also says regular maintenance is a good idea. 

EV fire fears

The severity of EV fires versus those in internal combustion vehicles are a recurring social media battleground, but EV FireSafe, a company that researches EV battery fires, says the former are less likely to be involved in a fire.

Petrol and diesel cars are 20 times more likely to catch on fire than an EV, according to Swedish data.

Furthermore, a battery fire is very different to fires in liquid fuels. 

Lithium ion batteries hold a lot of energy in a small space. Thermal runaway happens when a battery short circuits and that energy is released rapidly as heat. As well as being very hot, the battery also releases volatile gases containing heavy metals  such as hydrogen fluoride.

“Currently, passenger EV LiB fires are very rare. However the average age of EVs in the United States of America is around 4 years, compared to 12 years for ICEV,  and whether the risk of LiB fires will increase as the current cohort ages is unknown,” said the EV Firesafe report behind the new ABCB guidelines. 

“However, we can get a glimpse of the future by looking at the oldest EV on Australian roads, the Nissan Leaf, which was first sold in Australia a decade ago and globally for 12 years.

“There are approximately 2000 on the road nationally and 600,000 globally. Our database indicates only 8 Nissan Leaf LiB fires globally since 2010; 1 arson, 1 submersion, 1 suspected electrical fault & 5 of unknown cause.”

Data collected by EV Firesafe last year shows fires are much more likely in charging electric scooters and other mini-mobility devices. 

“Australia is at the start of an LEV fire spike,” wrote EV Firesafe project director Emma Sutcliffe last year, noting four incidents of e-scooter fires in Australia between March and June 2022.