It's being reported that a GM engineer suffered chemical burns and a concussion in an explosion on April 11 while testing a new electric vehicle battery being developed by A123. The explosion also knocked several windows and a door out of the lab building.
I can only imagine what they were doing to the batteries to make them explode. According to the Wall Street Journal, "batteries in that lab undergo testing in which they are damaged, exposed to extreme heat and cold, shaken, and doused with water in an effort to ensure they are safe."
On a related note -- and before I read this news story -- last night I ordered 32 of the A123 20ah prismatic pouch cells from ShenZhen Victpower, a black market seller in China that many DIYers have reported good experiences with. No one really knows how they got these cells, which are by all accounts quite amazing. So I made a Paypal payment of almost $800 and crossed my fingers.
The ones that exploded at GM may be a new, more volatile A123 design, or my have been battered into an unlikely explosion during tests. Whatever the case, I'm taking precautions to prevent an explosion and fire from burning down the garage, not limited to new fire alarms and relocating or containing every bit of flammable liquid in my garage.
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