Challenges in Transition towards Electric Vehicles

Context:

Recently, an 80-year-old man died at his home in Telangana’s Nizamabad district after the battery of an electric scooter exploded while being charged, there are many such incidents which have occurred recently.
After the enquiry, the Ministry of Road Transport intends to issue guidelines for EVs, including tests for compliance with safety norms.

Concerns about climate change have prompted international attempts to electrify the transportation sector. Parallel to this, the cost of Li-ion (Lithium-ion) battery technology has plummeted by an order of magnitude in the last decade.
The globe has taken notice of this moment, with governments providing incentives to speed up the shift and private sector preparing to seize market share.

The anode, which is typically graphite; the cathode, which is typically based on a nickel, cobalt, or manganese-based oxide; and the electrolyte, which is typically a lithium salt in an inorganic solvent.
Manufacturing a battery is a complicated process that involves making anode and cathode sheets and arranging them into a sandwich structure separated by a thin separator.
Separators, which are roughly 15 microns thick about a fifth of the thickness of a human hair play a key role in preventing shorting between the anode and cathode.
Accidental shorting of the electrodes is a known cause of fires in Li-ion cells.

Battery fires, like other fires, start when three elements of the “fire triangle” collide: heat, oxygen, and fuel.
The internal temperature of the battery can rise if an undesirable event occurs, such as a short circuit, because the anode and cathode discharge their energy through the short.
As a result, a sequence of reactions in the battery components, particularly the cathode, might occur, releasing heat and oxygen in an uncontrolled manner.
Such events also cause the sealed battery to break, exposing the components to the outside air and the second part of the fire triangle, oxygen.
The liquid electrolyte, which is combustible and serves as a fuel, completes the triangle.

Source: THE HINDU.