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It was using outdated NiMH or Lithium Ion batteries.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.

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

Not very environmentally friendly now!

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

I'm sure it's clean burning.

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

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

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

I wonder what its carbon footprint is now?

[Joe @ Jan 18th 2008 12:42PM]

One of these burned down the Warming Hut at Crissy Field in San Francisco. Since then the National Park Service has grounded all of them, they are all currently gathering dust at Fort Baker...

[srw @ Jan 18th 2008 2:54PM]

Apparently its happened more than once:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/26/BAGGONPRBP14.DTL

[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?

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

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

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

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

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

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

Riverside Highlanders!

[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.

[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/