Electric cars: the BURNING QUESTION

The drivers of Shenzhen's 300 electric taxis say they are finding passengers harder to come by following a deadly blaze in late May that was triggered by a rear-end collision.

Surveillance cameras showed the e6 electric taxi, made by Shenzhen-based BYD and being driven at 80km/h, bursting into flames just three seconds after a Nissan GTR travelling at 180km/h slammed into its rear. The fire, with flames up to four metres high, burned for 26 minutes before being put out, Xinhua's weekly Oriental Outlook magazine reported last month. Although the driver of the Nissan was only slightly injured, the driver and two passengers in the electric taxi were killed.

It was the fourth fire involving Chinese-made electric vehicles in just over a year. An electric taxi made by Zotye Auto, based in Zhejiang , burst into flames in Hangzhou in April last year, an electric bus made by Shanghai Leibo New Energy Auto Technology caught fire in Shanghai in July and a hybrid bus made by Shenzhen Wuzhoulong Motors burned in Shenzhen in August. Smoke was also seen pouring out of a BYD electric car in Shenzhen that same month.

Chinese experts say increasing concerns over the safety of electric cars should persuade the authorities to suspend a pilot scheme promoting domestically made electric vehicles and take 15,000 off the roads.

Professor Song Jian , from Tsinghua University's vehicle engineering department, said that huge design defects in BYD's electric cars could lead to many safety problems.

'Up to now, lithium iron phosphate batteries [such as those used in BYD's electric cars] haven't been widely recognised by industry experts as being perfectly safe for cars because the batteries can catch fire after a collision,' he said. 'Also, it's unreasonable for BYD to install 600kg battery modules in its electric cars, which account for more than 40 per cent of each vehicle's weight.'