Amazon Rivian Vans Are Burning Down at an Alarming Rate While Charging
Amazon Rivian vans are burning down more frequently than one would hope—a fact that should alarm Volkswagen that invested USD5 billion in the company.
Video from Third Coast Drone shows Rivian vans burning outside an Amazon center in Houston. The video doesn’t capture the beginning of the blaze, but it shows firefighters doing their best to tame the flames. Crucially, though, it also shows something else: That each van was parked at a charger.
This wasn’t the first time such a blaze was publicised as this Reddit post shared the same. The company attempted to hide the fire with a tent… it wasn’t successful.
While the cause of the fire was not shared by Rivian nor Amazon, some suspect that it may have been due to heat.
Rivian has responded to the Amazon Rivian Vans fires in a quote to Jalopnik which you can read below:
- We are aware of the incident and are investigating the situation.
- There were no injuries from this incident.
- As we are gathering information, it is too soon to say what might have caused this thermal event.
- A few things to point out from the initial evidence:
- There were a few vehicles impacted by the incident, but the thermal event propagated from the source to surrounding vehicles.
- This vehicle was plugged into the charger, but it was not charging when the incident occurred.
- The HV battery was not the initiator of the incident.
The doesn’t exactly rule out the possibility that the fire was caused by charging, but that just means that the vans are likely to spontaneously combust… we’re not sure which is worse.