Disregarding the argument on eco friendliness of gas vs electric, the fact is Lithium batteries are prone to combust due to heat buildup in the battery. Even my iPhone overheats to the point of shutting down sometimes, for no apparent reason.

Gas explosion would take some sort of catastrophic failure for an explosion. There'd likely need to first be a leak that hits an ignition source, then the gas tank would likely have to melt to the point of spilling out fuel. A closed gas tank is not very conducive to combusting because there is not enough oxygen. The fumes in the tank are more often above the lower explosive limit (basically not enough O2 to combust). Of course these things can happen, but I'd bet when they do it's usually part of a crash and not spontaneous combustion.

Has your phone combusted yet?

Lithium battery systems have safeguards built in too.

I would like to see a side by side, apples to apples comparison of the two. Are lithium vehicles truly more unstable than gasoline vehicles or is lithium just getting the attention now?

I think it’s definitely fair to say that lithium carts are more unstable than gas carts. I can’t tell you if that means there are more fires in one than the other but it is a fair assumption that gas vehicles don’t spontaneously combust. But you are correct there are ever improving safeguards being put in place. I agree that battery powered golf carts will eventually be the norm, I don’t believe this just because of the eco-friendly garbage. I think the quietness and lack of fumes are good reasons to buy.

And I don't agree with that without more evidence. When a similar thread was started I searched for related fires and one of the first I found was a BMW catching on fire when parked in a garage. Gas vehicles can also spontaneously combust but without more data we can't compare.

When a car or cart fire is reported the first question is whether it was an EV. If it turns out to be a gas vehicle then conversation ends. If it turns out to be electric then we get several pages of how dangerous lithium batteries are. We need statistics on the number of events and not on the number of pages written.

Still haven't got an answer..was this a Gas car?

I just researched the BMW issue. Interesting.

I just found an article about cars that seems to indicate hybrid car fires are double gas cars. All electric are much less than both.

Frayends-I still did NOT receive an answer. Was this a gas cart?

Looks electric to me. Isn't that a huge battery?

That would be my guess as well...

But it looks like lead acid to me?

I have no idea. Too much char and I am not a mechanic. But, I can help you by posting another thread regarding your question. The sooner we get to a new page, the sooner the discussions on owning a gas or electric cart will end. MAYBE THEN SOMEONE WILL ANSWER YOUR QUESTION. (Sorry, it is all I got.)

It sort of looks like lead acid. But then it looks like 1 big battery and you usually see 6 separate lead acid batteries. I have no idea what a lithium battery looks like under the nice cool covers they put on them.

I've also heard lithium battery fires are harder to put out. But with all the plastic in a golf cart, I'd guess any type would burn to nothing pretty fast.

Okay..then I guess I'll take that as it was NOT a gas cart. Those darn electrical fires are the worst. I guess I will stick with the Quietech EFI car.:gc:

If it really was a lithium ion battery, there would be nothing left to see in the photo.

Instead of looking at the battery look very closely at the steering wheel and dashboard. EV? Or, take the pic to the golf cart store. They will know.