On Tuesday morning, 1 September, fire broke out in an electric vehicle in the Marktplein car park in Epe, The Netherlands. The car park is protected with a sprinkler system which activated and controlled the fire. It is not yet clear how the fire started. Epe local council confirmed that it was the car owner.

While fire tests have been carried out on cars with internal combustion engines, no data have been made public on tests with electric vehicles. We know that a battery fire in an electric vehicle cannot be extinguished by a sprinkler system but have argued that a sprinkler system will prevent spread to other vehicles and limit the heat release rate from the first vehicle. This incident has confirmed that. See the photo.