While manufacturer’s build electric cars that don’t need gas, it has been found that the batteries using lithium-ion technology in those cars might have design defects that could potentially prove to be catastrophic in the event of a car accident.

New electric car batteries use lithium-ion technology, but these new batteries have the potential to cause car accidents.

As car accident attorneys and products liability lawyers, we understand that nothing is made perfectly.  Car accidents are caused by design defects every year.  But what is frustrating is that many of these imperfections that cause car accidents could be avoided if car manufacturers did not rush to place potentially unsafe cars on sale for consumers in order to gain a profit.

Car driving experts fret that short circuits — or damage from a car crash — could cause the latest generation of batteries using lithium-ion technology to overheat and catch on fire.

For example in mobile phones, laptops, and other gadgets, overheating happens in 1 of every 5 million to 10 million “cells” that make up the battery, which means fires are quite rare.  But while a laptop battery usually consists of a half-dozen cells, electric cars will need at least 75 or 80, which means one in every 60,000 electric cars hurtling down the highway could have a problem.

Furthermore design defects in batteries might not come up right away which means thousands of electric vehicles could be on the road before the first incident occurred.

To ensure safety, carmakers are rigorously testing their batteries.  Nissan and Mitsubishi, for instance, expose them to extreme heat and cold, charge and discharge them continuously, and crush them to simulate car crashes.

But such measures don’t fully reassure concerned experts.  “Until you put the batteries into a car and have someone drive it for a couple of years,” says a battery analyst with Tokyo market researcher Fuji-Keizai Group, “you won’t know how the car will be used or how the battery will hold up under real-world driving conditions.”

We — as car accident lawyers who handle products liability claims — are also concerned about the potentiality of fires and overheating in these new electric car batteries.  If the batteries overheat while a person is driving this could cause car accidents that result in the personal injury of you or a loved one.

Please feel free to call us now at 1-858-551-2090 or you can click here for a FREE CONSULTATION with an experienced personal injury attorney.  We have a large bilingual staff that can assist you in either English or Spanish.  No Fee If No Recovery.