And you thought that laptop fire sucked...

GEM neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) burning peacefully on the UC Riverside campus, January 15th, 2008. Bigger version in the gallery below.

[Image courtesy of Matt G.]

Gallery: And you thought that laptop fire sucked...

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[Fernando @ Jan 16th 2008 4:18PM]

Burn Baby Burn Disco Inferno!!!!!

[William @ Jan 16th 2008 4:31PM]

We Didn't Start the Fire, It was always burning since the world was turning...

[Prokanda @ Jan 16th 2008 5:17PM]

that's one of my favorite songs... so darn political too. good show. [@ we didn't start the fire]

[r3loaded @ Jan 16th 2008 5:26PM]

We don't need no water, let the futher muckers burn.....

[Slawek @ Jan 16th 2008 7:16PM]

The NEV, the NEV, the NEV is on fire...

[eugene @ Jan 16th 2008 4:20PM]

When will people finally learn that Zeus is a fickle god and that trapping his holy thunderbolts in little batteries is an abomination to him?

[austin @ Jan 16th 2008 4:38PM]

a combination of that comment and the fact that its snowing in atlanta made my day

[Lars @ Jan 16th 2008 8:35PM]

lol, great comment.

Cool pic of the EV burning. We use those things at my campus too, which is about 3 miles from UCR.

[zeus9387 @ Jan 17th 2008 3:00PM]

Yes. Yes, I am fickle, and all who have sought to entrap my essence WILL SUFFER!!!!!

[maryland157 @ Jan 16th 2008 4:23PM]

Is there a video of this fire?

[BigD145 @ Jan 16th 2008 4:25PM]

The hazards of technology. Anyone else want to talk about how "technology will save us"?

Oh well. There's a ton of these things on the road and this is the first time I've seen a picture of one do something like this.

[required @ Jan 16th 2008 4:51PM]

I don't think they are as combustible as their gasoline counterparts and since the picture lacks anymore info, it could be that someone doused the vehicle in gasoline.

[Ignatius @ Jan 17th 2008 12:20AM]

It was using outdated NiMH or Lithium Ion batteries.

Lithium ion polymer batteries that we currently use will not burst into flame if they are overheated.

[ZeroTech @ Jan 16th 2008 4:25PM]

Mr. Lange, can I get a "FIRE!" ?

[derekwf @ Jan 16th 2008 4:25PM]

Not very environmentally friendly now!

[survey @ Jan 16th 2008 8:18PM]

I'm sure it's clean burning.

[Tom F @ Jan 16th 2008 4:25PM]

I wonder what its carbon footprint is now?

[required @ Jan 16th 2008 4:30PM]

Patiently waiting for someone to report why this vehicle is burning, it's sort of being implied that the battery caused the fire...?

[Kasona @ Jan 16th 2008 4:30PM]

umm...no story, explanation, verification or anything? Other than being a cool picture, what happened here? Is there any reason to blame the batteries other than it being an electric car?

[peestandingup @ Jan 16th 2008 5:05PM]

Thats a Gem Car by the looks of it:

http://www.gemcar.com/models/details.asp?MID=8&ID=310

[aatif @ Jan 16th 2008 7:05PM]

It's a GEM car by the look of the caption below it, Sherlock. How about some real searching next time?

[peestandingup @ Jan 16th 2008 8:15PM]

There wasn't a caption at the time of our posts, dick head. Which is why I was replying to Kasona's comment. Sounds like you're the one who needs to read a bit.

[Kasona @ Jan 16th 2008 4:31PM]

umm...no story, explanation, verification or anything? Other than being a cool picture, what happened here? Is there any reason to blame the batteries other than it being an electric car?

[required @ Jan 16th 2008 4:44PM]

very odd indeed. it's almost like engadget is trying it's hand at spreading fear uncertainty and doubt. I wonder if they'd be open to following up with a picture of a fossilfool vehicle burning or maybe the hindenburg.

[Motoken @ Jan 16th 2008 4:31PM]

not going to buy anything with a battery bigger then my hand from now on.

[required @ Jan 16th 2008 4:45PM]

gas tank?

[kal326 @ Jan 16th 2008 4:42PM]

Well if it was the battery, wonder if it was made by the same defunct company responsible for the exploding AT&T boxes?

[richbum @ Jan 16th 2008 4:42PM]

hey look.. my school made engadget. lmfao. i'm writing this in class too...

[thethirdmoose @ Jan 16th 2008 5:20PM]

this is your teacher. i am not amused.

[paul in stl @ Jan 16th 2008 4:43PM]

Where are all the people converting all that heat into usable energy. At least make smores. COME ON, PEOPLE! ;)

[required @ Jan 16th 2008 5:02PM]

and you thought that fire sucked... http://images.google.com/images?q=car+fire

[mikelong @ Jan 16th 2008 5:07PM]

Lmao. 2nd row, 3rd one down...now that is scary.

[grjohnston @ Jan 16th 2008 5:25PM]

I've driven in a bunch of carts like this. That never happened to me.

[macona @ Jan 16th 2008 5:28PM]

Yet...

[Reader @ Jan 16th 2008 7:01PM]

I've been outside a bunch of times, never had a tornado get me.

[hausenpepper @ Jan 16th 2008 5:35PM]

we don't need no water let the XotherXucker burn! Burn XotherXucker Burn!

[neongenesispop @ Jan 16th 2008 5:35PM]

Ha, I can't believe this made Engadget. I go to UCR and I actually saw the smoke when it started to happen. I didn't realize it was one of the karts though. Just cool to see it here.

[gio @ Jan 16th 2008 5:42PM]

whoa.. so thats what the smoke was about. i go to ucr too. lol

[Distractedfocus @ Jan 16th 2008 5:52PM]

Now I don't know what kind of vehicle that is but it looks like some kind of nonglobal warming green electric cow manure powered vehicle. So I ask what is making this look as though a gas/oil fire? I know its all the plastic that was made from Oil.

Also with all this smoke I don't think they will be carbon neutral for quite some time.

[Matt @ Jan 16th 2008 5:54PM]

When did Dell start making cars?

[Andrew Cooper @ Jan 16th 2008 5:58PM]

Looks nasty, but still doesn't beat this one: http://www.popamericana.com/!/barrel.o.fun.jpg

[Warhorse @ Jan 16th 2008 6:01PM]

That's a big laptop

[Brennan @ Jan 16th 2008 6:13PM]

damn........this happened near me n it's posted on engadget? I didnt even know about this n i go to RCC.

[jlee104 @ Jan 16th 2008 6:40PM]

Holy crap I go to UC Riverside, a friend told me bout this yesterday but I didnt think it was this bad

[Austin @ Jan 16th 2008 6:41PM]

Riverside Highlanders!

[Bernard Ortcutt @ Jan 16th 2008 6:41PM]

One of these things went up in flames and burned the Warming Hut in the San Francisco Presidio.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/27/BAG8ANQ2P71.DTL

[XgenMods @ Jan 16th 2008 7:17PM]

See what happens when you leave that nice laptop in the car unattended... kaboom!

[neil balthaser @ Jan 16th 2008 8:03PM]

For what it's worth:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35646/113/

[David @ Jan 16th 2008 8:04PM]

Instead of giving out parking tickets UCR Police now just burn vehicles.

Had many a parking tickets there...

[Vanishing Sun @ Jan 16th 2008 8:36PM]

Thats in front of the art's building... Crazy. How'd it happen?

"Just thinking about those little pieces of heaven, makes me wanna burn this mothaf@$#er down."
"C'mon Pookie, let's burn this mothaf#@#er down."