If You’re Warming Up Your Car In New York, DON’T DO THIS!
New Yorkers have to be smarter than this, right? I know we can do some knucklehead things but this takes the cake and I'm so glad that it didn't happen here. We would be the laughingstock of the world. Instead, Denmark is.
This is a story about trial and error gone horribly wrong. A car owner in Denmark tried to warm up their electric vehicle and they got a warm car alright. So warm, that a smoking crater took the place where a vehicle used to be. However, that's not the last of it as the owner was also given a very big fine.
Apparently what happened in Stenlille (a town located about 40 miles from Copenhagen) is that someone with a very bad idea decided to use a toaster to make the battery of their electric vehicle toasty. They cranked the temperature on the toaster all the way up, put it under their car, and boom, toasty. Really really toasty.
Don't Use a Toaster To Warm Your Car
The battery went up in flames and so did the car but it gets even worse. The carport that the vehicle was parked in suffered damage and so did the neighbor's house. Lithium-ion batteries are used in electric vehicles and there have been many reports in the last few years about how dangerous they are because they tend to catch fire.
In 2019, CBS News reported that the batteries were responsible for nearly 700 fires in New York and San Francisco alone and that there were 326 injuries in New York. Yikes!
The temperatures are getting colder in New York but if you find yourself wanting to warm up your electric vehicle with a toaster...DON'T! Do the wise thing and leave your toaster at home in the kitchen...where it belongs.
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