It has less gasoline than than old-fashioned cars!

 

@veinless...My husband is afraid of the battery in the Rav4 Prime catching fire, not the gasoline!

 

What is he basing this concern on?

Is there anything that would change his mind that he'll admit to?

 

Tell him it’s a Toyota, not a Hyundai or Kai.

 

Does the Rav4 Prime have any safety features making it less likely to catch fire?

To answer OP’s question, it has a ton of safety features. Battery fires are caused by puncture (not happening in the garage) or thermal runaway (which causes the battery to rupture effectively puncturing itself).

The charge rate is very slow for an EV, and the battery has a management system with temperature sensors that keeps a close eye on everything. Toyota is very conservative here.

im not any more concerned about my Prime battery than I am with the many other devices with Li batteries I have all over the home (phones tablets laptops etc). IOW, not much…

 

My son has a Rav4 Prime but my husband won't allow him to put it in our garage because he is afraid it could catch fire.
Does the Rav4 Prime have any safety features making it less likely to catch fire?

Yes, the badges on it that say Toyota, not Tesla.

BTW, I've had two cars catch fire in my lifetime. A Ford Escort and a Nissan 300zx. The Ford was caused by a short circuit in the electrical system. The 300ZX was caused by a fuel injector leak. ICE cars catch fire too.

 

Yes, the badges on it that say Toyota, not Tesla.

BTW, I've had two cars catch fire in my lifetime. A Ford Escort and a Nissan 300zx. The Ford was caused by a short circuit in the electrical system. The 300ZX was caused by a fuel injector leak. ICE cars catch fire too.

Did those cars catch fire in a garage or while being driven.

 

what probability would he be comfortable with?

 

Thanks for the replies, I'll discuss all your positive answers on Toyota battery safety with my husband and hope he changes his mind!

 

Your husband is probably falling victim to a news cycle that over-saturates negative news regarding EVs. Any time an EV has caught fire, every local ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliate spend at least 10 minutes on it at the 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00 news break. They can't get enough of that stuff, because electric vehicles are NEW, and SCARY, and LOOK! FIRE!

 

My son has a Rav4 Prime but my husband won't allow him to put it in our garage because he is afraid it could catch fire.
Does the Rav4 Prime have any safety features making it less likely to catch fire?

You might suggest that it is more likely that the battery in the laptop in your house is more likely to catch fire than a R4P in your garage. They both use the same kind of battery.

 

Anything can catch fire in a garage. I wouldn't worry about your sons car catching fire anymore than your own.

 

I was really hoping we could start a poll and start running the stats on how likely we think a prime catching fire in a garage is. not quite sure what the right hypothesis would be here. like should it just be in the past X months? maybe only look at primes from a certain year?

 

What's the chance he sleeps with an iPhone next to his head? I'd trust Toyota a lot more.

 

Why is everyone missing the point. The Dad is obviously trying to get the son to move out! By creating ridiculous arbitrary rules that would test any reasonable persons sanity, he's creating the conditions for the son to leave the nest. Good on him I say.

If your kid can afford to drive a $50K car wouldn't any sane person choose autonomy and freedom? Who would choose to live under such nonsensical drivel!

Not true, my son doesn't live here, he wants to put his Rav4 in the garage when he visits. Some of my neighbors feel the same, they don't want EV's in their garage.

 

Why is everyone missing the point. The Dad is obviously trying to get the son to move out! By creating ridiculous arbitrary rules that would test any reasonable persons sanity, he's creating the conditions for the son to leave the nest. Good on him I say.

If your kid can afford to drive a $50K car wouldn't any sane person choose autonomy and freedom? Who would choose to live under such nonsensical drivel!

 

Why is everyone missing the point. The Dad is obviously trying to get the son to move out! By creating ridiculous arbitrary rules that would test any reasonable persons sanity, he's creating the conditions for the son to leave the nest. Good on him I say.

If your kid can afford to drive a $50K car wouldn't any sane person choose autonomy and freedom? Who would choose to live under such nonsensical drivel!

Well, maybe if your Daddy was rich and bought you the R4P, you might want to continue living there.

 

My son has a Rav4 Prime but my husband won't allow him to put it in our garage because he is afraid it could catch fire.
Does the Rav4 Prime have any safety features making it less likely to catch fire?

There are typically three things that make this type of battery catch fire:
1. Physical damage (cracked/punctured cells) that create short circuits inside the battery pack and runaway overheating. In the Prime, there are multiple layers of physical protection making this risk close to zero unless in a MAJOR accident - and even then, there's enough protection that it is unlikely.
2. Poor design of the control electronics so that individual cells can get too hot so they breakdown the barrier between cells, causing thermal runaway. This happens mostly because companies use cheap designs (such as the cheap Chinese phone batteries that catch fire) or are too aggressive in trying to get the most time/range out of a battery (maybe behind the early Tesla fires).
3. Poor design of the battery packs so that options 1 and 2 become more likely. Again, this happens mostly because companies use cheap designs (such as the cheap Chinese phone batteries that catch fire) or are too aggressive in trying to get the most time/range out of a battery (the reason for the Samsung Note 7 disaster).

Toyota has a great design reputation and tends to be conservative in their approach, so I really don't have any concerns about a Prime catching fire - unless someone is stupid enough to try and modify the battery pack/charging module.

 

I was listening to a Podcase called Wheelbrarings done by an automotive engineer who has done some research on this very topic. I cannot remember the exact numbers, but his research found that fires per 1000 vehicles is far higher in gasoline vehicles that in battery vehicles. Since the original posters vehicle is a hybrid, I would statistically be more worried about a gasoline fire than a battery fire. Most of the "sensational" news coverage about EV battery fires are in a crash situation. Toyota has been building hybrid vehicles for a very long time and have perfected battery management systems that are very reliable. I certainly am not worried about parking and charging my R4P in the garage.

 

$17K and I'll throw in a mint condition Ford Pinto so you have something to use the fire extinguisher on!

 

I can't top that. I'm out.

 

That running Ford Pinto is now a classic and will likely cost you more than a new R4P in today's used car market. 😄

All jokes aside, let's be mindful and sensitive about both father and son's concerns. Since the OP's family is doing well above most Americans, the best solution is for the father to buy the son an ICE car that can comfortably fit both parents and son's family for him to commute between the two homes. (Oh wait, just realized this could be the father or the son's ulterior motive : )

 

Thanks for the laughs . My husband and I are happy to still be driving our old 2000 and 2008 Honda CRV's, no EV's for us!

 

You better park those CR-V’s in the garage. They are prime (see what I did there) targets for catalytic converter theft!

 

Before my 2009 BMW X3 got totaled, I was on a waiting list to get the heated PCV valve replaced due to it heating up while parked and catching the car on fire. While waiting, I was contemplating installing a smoke detector right over the car in the garage. Well, it's gone now and now I just have to be concerned about driving in the rain and having roof rains leak and damage the electrical system.

 

only personal story I know of a vehicle catching fire was my dad's 86 chevy custom deluxe he sold to a friend going up in flames in a parking lot while he was at work.

 

This is going back about 15 years or more, but a friend took her fairly new car in for a routine service. On the way home, it stalled and wouldn't start. Her phone was dead, so she got out to use a pay phone (as I said, 15 years or more). While on the phone with the dealer to get them to send someone, she watched it burst into flames - it was totaled. She was lucky that her phone was dead.

Someone must have damaged the fuel line during the "routine service."

 

My son has a Rav4 Prime but my husband won't allow him to put it in our garage because he is afraid it could catch fire.
Does the Rav4 Prime have any safety features making it less likely to catch fire?

Batteries seem to be in the news, particularly the lithium ion ones. Lead acid batteries are not at risk. The Lithium ion are experiencing packaging fails for one reason or another.
I think they are used in Hybrid cars but I have not looked into it. Just saw on news also electric scooters and bicycles with lithium ion batteries. All can go really bad if the circuitry governing allows overcharging. Worth looking into and consulting with your insurance company. If I had a car with lithium ion battery I'd be parking it out of the garage. And that's why we did not get
a Hybrid when changed cars for wife in January. Let others be the test cases.

 

I think they are used in Hybrid cars but I have not looked into it.
Just saw on news also electric scooters and bicycles with lithium ion batteries.
Let others be the test cases.

Hybrids use the same type of battery. The Prius has been out since 1997, with zero reputation for being a fire risk. We've had 16 years of test cases!

Electric scooters and bicycles can be supplied with poorly designed/packaged battery packs and inferior control electronics lacking things like over-charge protection and overheating protection - this makes them a pretty high risk, especially if people get cheap third party batteries or chargers. You can't compare the safety of these with that of a hybrid/EV from a major company.

 

Presumably you have a multi-bay garage then? perhaps an unused 3rd spot that your son is trying to use during his visits? If so, I am jealous at your large garage!! Perhaps a reasonable solution is to let him park in the garage, but not let him charge when it is inside...If you do not run your appliances overnight/unattended, charging a car should fall into the same category. As a rule here, we might rotate cars in the garage bays (as availability/projects permit), but we never charge in the garage - charging and discharging are when batteries are most unstable. Incidentally, we also never use the dishwasher, dryers, generators etc..anything high power...unattended or overnight (and in fact (yes) we usually disconnect computer power transformers when not in use.).

 

4x4Ken is merely pointing out the potential risk(s) with the Lithium-ion batteries from his knowledge, perspective and agreement with OP's husband.

As for Prius with zero reputation for being a fire risk, not sure even Toyota can make that statement since we are talking about multiple factors.
Toyota Recalls Prius Hybrids for Fire Risk - Consumer Reports

But none of the car fire caused by batteries, electrical circuitry, etc. have the potential to go as bad as this:
NTSB blames 2013 787 battery fire on oversight issues | CNN

Not sure if I ever want to fly in a 787 (or 737 MAX) 😅.

 

My son has a Rav4 Prime but my husband won't allow him to put it in our garage because he is afraid it could catch fire.
Does the Rav4 Prime have any safety features making it less likely to catch fire?

There have been (0) rav4 prime charging fires. Most likely he will be charging with 110v. It doesn't heat up the battery like a full electric car on fast charge. And it is a Toyota. maybe the old man doesn't want to pay for the electricity to charge the boy's vehicle.
OK... Looked up fires and there is a action against 2013-2018 rav4's. there have been fires from a defective 12V battery. It is not the drive battery, but the normal 12v that works your windshield wipers radio, and other items. This is a 3rd party item that doesn't affect the Prime or newer Rav4's. Toyota has less recall issues than almost any other manufacturer, but stuff happens (11) fires under investigation out of 1.752 million rav4's sold in the US from 2013-2018. I looked it up! your husband is just about as likely to be killed by a vending machine than a 2013-2018 12v rav4 fire. And the boy doesn't have one of these...

 

before trying to convince someone that they should change their mind on something you need to first determine if they are even open to change given new data. if they can't tell you what evidence it would take for them to change their mind than it's not worth the time and effort. for instance, even though the evidence you just presented is pretty convincing a person unwilling to change their view would just see that any fires happen and let that reinforce their perspective.

 

We have had a PHEV plugged in to 120-volt sockets in our garage nightly/daily every year since 2018, and since last June we have had two PHEVs plugged in daily/nightly. No problems. Because our garage is attached to our house, I'm vastly more eager to have plug-in vehicles in our garage than straight ICEVs, because we never have any exhaust fumes in our garage now. I'll take my chances with proven-safe PHEV technology vs. gas fumes any day. (And don't get me started on the very real multiple dangers of natural gas in a home; I'm thankful that we don't have natural gas to power things or cook.)