Two people killed in the accident. Seems to be that the battery actually malfunctions prior to the crash and then crashes into a tree. Car is completely engulfed in a battery fire within 3 minutes. Cells scattered around the scene.
This seems absolutely horrific.
Those lithium ion batteries are actually great. They're very energy dense. I used to be on the solar car team in college and we made the solar car batteries the exact same way. We also had to follow strict design rules for driver and passenger egress so that a driver/passenger could egress really quickly if required. The video is just indescribable... I'm guessing a battery failure preceded the accident, but it must have been a massive failure to cause such a catastrophic effect. Probably points to a poor design, but that goes without saying
I'd imagine it's an issue with the battery chain. They're awesome batteries, but even one failing is pretty catastrophic looking.
I imagine one going off could lead to a chain reaction. No idea the science there though