On September 14, a video of a Porsche car on fire went viral on the Chinese internet. Media reports have now come out stating that the vehicle was a Porsche Taycan EV driven in the Suzhou city of southern Jiangsu Province in Eastern China.
Multiple media outlets reported that the Porsche Taycan in question met with an accident and burst into flames almost immediately. The car had reportedly hit a guardrail near a shopping mall and caught fire. Passersby tried to rescue the driver but the car door was jammed and could not be opened from the outside which eventually lead to the death of the young driver who was in his thirties.
Subsequently, a video has gone viral on Chinese social media which shows the people around the EV trying to help the driver but in vain, as the car burst into flames. The reason and the exact cause of the accident and fire are still unknown.
This is apparently the third incident in the last four months wherein a Porsche was caught on fire, two of them being recently launched EVs. On August 12, a Porsche Panamera EV suddenly caught on fire. The driver and passengers saw smoke emitting from the driver’s seat and quickly stopped the car and rushed out within seconds before the whole vehicle exploded. Back on June 13, Suzhou city witnessed a Porsche spontaneously catch fire. Again the driver and passengers were lucky and could escape before the car was completely charred.
Recent data released by the National Emergency Management Department states that the first quarter of 2022 saw 640 fires in electric cars. This figure was an increase of 32 percent year on year. However, for cars powered by internal combustion, the growth rate was just 8.8 percent. The three fires and one death in a Porsche vehicle in China have led to questions about the safety and security of EVs in the country which now shows an emerging trend of vehicle fires.
