A man in Australia died after he used an incompatible charger on an electric scooter he had recently purchased. That unwise decision led to the scooter’s battery exploding, burning 90 percent of his body. He died in intensive care a day later.
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The sad story is a great reminder that if you have anything with a lithium-ion battery that needs to be plugged in, be it a car, motorcycle, e-bike, or scooter, you should only use the charger made for that specific vehicle.
Using another random charger which happens to fit in the charging port could result in a fire and possibly the explosion of the battery.
In this case, Shepparton News reports the victim got a used electric scooter two weeks before the accident. When he decided to charge the thing, he used a charger his friend had apparently stolen (we have questions about that) but it wasn’t compatible with the scooter.
Plugging the scooter in before going to bed with his pregnant girlfriend, they woke up to the fire just 20 minutes later. That’s how fast lithium-ion batteries can burn out of control.
He ran toward the blaze and yelled at his girlfriend to jump out of a window, which she did. Then the scooter’s battery exploded so violently a neighbor said it shook her house as a ball of flame erupted into the air.
In other words, it was quite the explosion. That was with a tiny little battery, so you can only imagine what a vehicle like a car with a much larger lithium-ion would do when connected to the incorrect charger.
When you get a used vehicle with a lithium-ion battery and no charger, you really should pay the money to get a compatible charger from the manufacturer. The consequences of not are steep.
Image via Mearth Technology/Pexels
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