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leafcharging·November 01, 2026·@lgarnier_8

My In laws Leaf just caught on fire after fast charging on a chademo station !!

First, a caveat: I'm not trying to scare anyone off EVs. I own one myself :) What I really want is to understand what happened here and find the best places to turn for help. My mother-in-law has (or had) a 2021 Leaf with the larger battery, though I don't know the trim. For about 3 years she's mostly charged it at home on Level 1. Last week she drove roughly 120 miles on a road trip and stopped at a CHAdeMO fast charger. Nothing seemed off. The car charged up to 80%. Then, on the drive back to their place, only about 3 miles from the station, they heard what they describe as knocking from beneath the driver and passenger seats. Assuming something had lodged under the car, they pulled over and got out, and that's when they saw smoke. There was nothing stuck under there, and no sign anything had been. The fire department arrived but couldn't stop the smoke. There weren't really any visible flames, only smoke. Firefighters had to tilt the car so they could spray something underneath it, yet the battery temperature kept climbing again and again, even after the smoke cleared. The car smoldered for close to 2 days. The firefighters called around to find somewhere that would agree to bury the car, to contain what they called an "internal battery fire," but nobody would take it. So they ended up working on it for more than 30 hours just to keep the battery temperature down. We phoned Nissan roadside assistance and they were completely useless. The fire department also called Nissan (I'm not sure which line), and Nissan told them flatly that nothing could be done. We reported it to NHTSA too. They simply logged it and gave no indication of next steps, or whether we'd hear anything back. The whole experience feels unsupported: highway authorities, Nissan, nobody seems to care. The fire marshals are the exception, and they've been fantastic! Doesn't Nissan warranty the battery? If a car catches fire because of a battery that's under warranty, what does that actually mean? I'm confused about what the battery warranty covers. If you have questions, ask away and I'll answer as best I can, though it isn't my car. :)

Filed under: leafcharging

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133 ANSWERS

@wendt_rNovember 01, 2026

Good to hear everyone got out okay. Their insurance should handle it. A Leaf catching fire is really uncommon.

@ray_cutlipNovember 01, 2026

Not so much. It's been a terrible year for forest fires, so plenty of leaves have...

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Go ahead and post them here! A solid dad joke always makes my day 😁

@pete_overholtNovember 01, 2026

I'm fairly sure there's an open recall right now that hasn't been remedied.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Thanks for pointing that out, I'll check it. I'm pretty sure though that this one is a 2021 model year.

@mlund_47November 01, 2026

It might apply to your car's year, since the recall covers vehicles built between August 29, 2018 and November 3, 2020. If yours wasn't built in that window, it sounds like they may have to widen the recall.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Good point. I entered the VIN on Nissan's website and no battery recall showed up for it. Everything I'm seeing makes me think this is a case of a car that was cleared to fast charge.

@jsiegel_58November 01, 2026

When you say "certain," you really mean "all" 😁 The recall covers 23,000 Leafs from 2019 and 2020, which, by an amazing coincidence, is about how many Leafs were sold in those two years.

@dune_ashbyNovember 01, 2026

Does the recall apply to the battery or the entire car? Mine is a 2016 LEAF, but it has a 2020 battery in it from a warranty replacement.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Wait, Nissan still hasn't sorted this out? My mother-in-law kept her car in great shape, so if a recall had been open I'm sure she'd have dealt with it. Update: I checked, and her car is a 2021, so it looks like the recall doesn't cover it.

@walt_rinkerNovember 01, 2026

As far as I know there's no remedy available yet. My own recall letter showed up the very evening I returned from a trip where I'd used a fast charger in a parking structure, and since then I haven't heard anything new about it. Luckily I almost never fast charge.

@pete_brandowNovember 01, 2026

Sounds like you got lucky. We just had an orange moon recently, which is only a single shade off from a blue one.

@kris_belmontNovember 01, 2026

There's a page where you can search for recalls, though when I looked I didn't find anything recent.

@dpoole_73November 01, 2026

No, they haven't. I had my 2019 bought back, because as of August 2025 there was still no fix on offer.

@dan_yorkeNovember 01, 2026

I'm thinking about doing the same and have no idea where to begin. How did you get them to repurchase it, and what was the process like? Also, how did the buyback amount compare with what you originally paid? And did it have to go through the dealer where you bought it, or will any Nissan location handle it? Thanks so much for any guidance!!

@sgrimes_19November 01, 2026

I asked for a buyback and got turned down. I suspect it mostly comes down to state law, and North Carolina's is pretty much worthless for this.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Interesting. Could you tell me more? Did you have to push Nissan into buying it back? I can't picture them offering it on their own.

@dpoole_73November 01, 2026

Yes, I had to ask for it myself. It started when they delayed the recall remedy from March to "Spring 2025", and I filed a complaint with consumer affairs. About a month later I phoned them, and a month after that I emailed my case manager, saying that I expected one of three things: a fix, confirmation that my car wasn't affected by the recall, or a repurchase. I was stunned when they went with the repurchase.

@fitch_aNovember 01, 2026

I'd be thrilled if 2021 models end up included in the recall, because then they could take mine back once the 2026s are available.

@dpoole_73November 02, 2026

I suspect this one is a different situation. The earlier charging recall was about lithium plating, which builds up from the heat of DC fast charging, grows dendrites, and ends up bridging the anode and cathode inside a cell. What's being reported here doesn't look like that on first glance, though we'll need to see how the investigation plays out. Think about it: a single DC fast charge, and after that the battery is just discharging. Even with regen, it shouldn't be under strain for long. The "knocking noises" make me wonder whether road debris punctured or damaged the pack beforehand. Plenty of owners drive through puddles for years, lose their splash shields, and shrug it off. To be clear, I'm not trying to give Nissan a free pass. It just SOUNDS like this isn't exactly the same problem, since the earlier incidents happened during DC fast charging. My guess is Nissan will repeat what it did before, working with NHTSB on an investigation and then drawing conclusions. I'm glad OP brought this up, because NHTSB should hear about any major mechanical fault that creates a safety risk. I also wish more LEAF owners would report the front-end "clunk." Nissan has a technical note on it, and it can be repaired under warranty (powertrain coverage only). Mine was fixed on my 2019 when I was just inside the 6-year/60k-mile limit. If NHTSB folded it into a recall, Nissan would have to fix every car, whether or not it's still under warranty.

@fitch_aNovember 01, 2026

I'm curious too, but I don't think this will get added to the recall. Setting the engineering side aside, I've watched other brands claim a defect was contained, only for later model years to show the same trouble. My axle has the front-end click. They supposedly repaired it once, and by now I've just learned to tune it out. I've never heard it on my mom's Ariya, so maybe it's finally been sorted out after showing up across so many Nissan models over a ridiculous number of years.

@dpoole_73November 01, 2026

Ha, but Ariyas have only been around for roughly 4 years! My LEAF was quiet when I bought it in March 2024. The click/clunk showed up, I believe, after I got an alignment around May. The dealer fixed it in June while doing the HVAC recall work, and it hasn't come back. Here's why I think Nissan EVs might be prone to it: with a gas car, the routine oil change usually comes with a shop greasing things like the axle and chassis parts, if it's a decent shop. EVs skip that, so nothing gets greased until we start hearing clicks and clunks.

@royce_altNovember 01, 2026

Uh, newer cars don't have grease fittings. Suspension bushings, U-joints, CV joints, and often wheel bearings are all run-until-failure parts. Bearings may be repacked when the rotors are replaced, but that's normally an extra service only done if you ask. If a shop bills you for a "suspension lube," you're being ripped off.

@quillan_88November 01, 2026

I had no idea the front-end clunk could be repaired under warranty. Thanks for telling me!

@dpoole_73November 01, 2026

It's covered by Nissan Technical Bulletin NTB12-055I. The noise can be a click or a clunk, and the Drive Train Warranty at Nissan covers the repair. If you'd like a full list of every technical bulletin, meaning problems Nissan knows about that can be fixed under some part of the warranty, here you go. It's for the 2019 LEAF, but you can change it to match your model year.

@rbosworth_November 01, 2026

What exactly does a buyback involve? Do they pay you the KBB value, or just some rough estimate?

@wes_halvornNovember 01, 2026

No. 2019 and 2020 Leafs have gone about a year now without being allowed to fast charge. Apparently Nissan has a fix, but dealerships haven't gotten it yet. My local dealer is lending me a loaner so I can get to my grandmother's celebration of life this weekend. Anyone in a similar spot should ask for a loaner too. I hope your MIL didn't ignore the recall and keep fast charging.

@orvil_kNovember 01, 2026

I work in the parts department at a Nissan dealer, and I also own a 2022 Leaf. Part of my job is monitoring new recalls and recalls that have been updated with available fixes so I can order the right parts. So far I haven't seen any updated document on the internal website. I'll check again on Tuesday when I'm back at work.

@wes_halvornNovember 02, 2026

Unfortunately, no. Anyone with a 2019 or 2020 Leaf has gone about twelve months now without being able to fast charge. Word is that Nissan has a remedy ready, but it hasn't reached the dealerships. In my case, the local dealer lent me a car so I could get to my grandmother's celebration of life this weekend, and I'd suggest anyone stuck in the same spot request a loaner too. I also hope your MIL didn't brush off the recall and keep fast charging.

@dsimonsen_41November 01, 2026

If you're in the UK, you can enter your registration plate into the DVLA's MOT check tool.

@sbeckett_19November 01, 2026

The poster referred to the NHTSA, an American agency, so the US is the likelier location.

@pkeller_83November 01, 2026

Being registered in 2021 doesn't rule out the car having been built in 2020, since it may well have sat unsold for some time. Take mine: it carries a 2013 plate, but because that was registered in early January, it was certainly built in 2012. X

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

That makes sense to me. I typed my VIN into Nissan's recall site and nothing came up about fast charging or a fire hazard. It only listed a Sony rearview camera recall and one for the defroster. Since there's no battery fire risk listed, I figure my car isn't among the affected models.

@pkeller_83November 01, 2026

Ah, okay, that never occurred to me to check! 🤣 I haven't looked up mine either 😂🤣

@noel_garrityNovember 01, 2026

Still no fix on my end. I'm stuck owning a car that can't fast charge and that I can't sell either, so traveling out of town is off the table for me.

@dale_ankenyNovember 01, 2026

I'm very sorry this happened, and relieved that everyone's okay. My advice is to bring in your insurer and let them and their lawyers handle Nissan and its consumer affairs department. Nissan publishes an online Emergency Response Guide describing what first responders ought to do, and it lists: "Emergency Contact: Nissan EV Customer Support: 1-877-664-2738 or Nissan Consumer Affairs: 1-800-647-7261 (US) or 1-800-387-0122 (Canada)." Section 6-1 covers vehicle files.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Great reply, thank you! The insurance claim is already filed and they're talking with Nissan. From what I gather, though, even if the insurer decides Nissan is to blame, the most we can hope for is Nissan reimbursing the claim's deductible. With a KBB value around 11k, that's very little for a car they intended to keep for many more years.

@sgreer_64November 01, 2026

In principle that money ought to cover another 2021 with the 60kWh pack. If it doesn't, they should dig up comparable Leafs listed by reputable main dealerships, use them as the insurance comparison, and push for a higher payout. To go off on a tangent, I'm starting to dislike the 2018-and-later battery packs. They all seem to show poor HX numbers as they get older, essentially developing high internal resistance, which is what lies behind this fire issue and makes them run very hot during DCFC sessions, or even under hard driving.

@jtamsinNovember 01, 2026

Since the car went up in flames, treat it as a total loss and sort that out through your insurer. Also, escalate the incident to NissanUSA corporate so they're directly involved.

@rhall_82November 01, 2026

First question: did your in-laws get a recall notice? The well-known recall covers 2018 through 2020 models, and a notice would have told owners to avoid fast charging, which means that if they got one and fast charged anyway, they took on some risk themselves. If no notice ever arrived, then I'd say Nissan ought to replace the battery, provided nothing else could have started the fire. Figuring out the cause would likely take a Leaf technician, and the pack would have to be removed and disassembled. At my dealer I'd be billed for diagnostics until they establish it's a warranty matter. Also worth asking whether your in-laws carry comprehensive coverage. If so, they could file a claim and let the insurer handle the rest. I'm curious how GM responded when the Bolts were igniting.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

I'll double-check with them, but I'm fairly sure it was a 2021. And even for a model under recall, it seems there's still no repair available, so owners can't travel and the blame apparently lands on her. It's unfair that she might be seen as at fault. This isn't like drunk driving or texting behind the wheel, where you knowingly accept the risk. She just used the car the way you're meant to after buying it. Still, I understand, it's the legal side of things. Edit: confirmed, it was a 2021.

@lhurley_08November 01, 2026

Because it's a 2021, the recall evidently doesn't apply, so nobody would have warned them off fast charging. Beyond that, going by their account, the problem began as something physical. A battery-originated fire would have happened at the charger, not after they'd already left, and the car would most likely have shut itself down on a battery temperature warning instead of letting them drive the rest of the way home. What they describe is a thumping noise. My guess is they picked up road debris that lodged in the wheel well, and friction against the tire ignited it. That fire then spread into the battery compartment and set the pack alight.

@gil_venturaNovember 01, 2026

I think that's very improbable. Where I live, a Leaf burned while charging at home, and although the whole car was destroyed, the battery survived intact. As for the sounds they heard, damaged cells breaking things inside the battery pack seem the likelier cause.

@lhurley_08November 01, 2026

That's possible, but I'd still expect the car to stop driving if a cell went into runaway. Cell voltages are monitored, and a runaway cell is shorted so it outputs hardly any voltage; even if temperature sensors are slow to trip, the voltage monitoring wouldn't be. Alternatively, debris could have punctured the battery, giving the fire a path inside.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

I doubt it. Debris after many miles of highway driving, maybe. But they went about three miles at most on city streets, where traffic crawls.

@dougherty_lNovember 01, 2026

One upside if your Leaf is on fire: you won't be stuck inside, since the door handles are mechanically linked to the latches.

@rknoblauchNovember 01, 2026

A suggestion for firefighters: bring watertight containers with open tops, since the car's a write-off regardless:

@nate_ferrell2November 01, 2026

I'm sure they know such things exist, but one probably wasn't within reach. Not every small town has one.

@lhurley_08November 01, 2026

If a battery fire refuses to die down, the old standby is to drown the whole car in water, and it doesn't much matter how you manage it. As for coverage, the battery itself is warrantied for 8 years, and since your car is only a 2021 it's also still inside the bumper-to-bumper period. The catch is that the manufacturer won't act without an incident report from the fire department. Having a determined cause in that report would be ideal, but any report at all should be enough to support your claim.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Between me, my wife, my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law, every one of us has an EV. Lunch last Sunday got a bit awkward because of it: we each left our cars parked well away from everyone else's. Nobody had to say a thing.

@cfalkner_71November 01, 2026

My 2016 Leaf has 155,000 km on it and it heats up fast, so now I've got a brand new thing to be nervous about.

@lyman_k44November 01, 2026

The 2016 model has an LMO battery, so there's nothing to worry about there. It's the 2015 to 2018 cars that are NMC, which burns far more violently and can't cope over the long haul without some form of thermal management.

@cfalkner_71November 01, 2026

The 2016 Leaf has the heat-tolerant "Lizard" battery, and that's NMC-based. The older LMO chemistry was only in the 2010-12 cars.

@lyman_k44November 01, 2026

A mix of LiMn2O4 and LiNiO2 isn't NMC, so you've got that wrong.

@mhalpin_20November 01, 2026

Honestly, EVs aren't the thing to fear. Depending on which study you read, gas cars catch fire anywhere from 20 to 80 times more often.

@raylan_pittNovember 01, 2026

I can't recall ever hearing about an ordinary petrol or diesel car just bursting into flames while being driven normally.

@mhalpin_20November 01, 2026

That's because it happens so often that nobody reports on it; it's never news. Roughly 1 to 3 percent of gas cars end up burning down at some point. EVs, by contrast, are new and fires are extremely rare, so each one gets regular coverage. A lot of the publicity also comes from people not realizing how common fires are in gas cars and how uncommon they are in EVs.

@nolan_fiskNovember 01, 2026

You also have to consider how severe these fires are. Lithium-ion thermal runaway can burn about twice as hot as a gasoline fire, which raises the chance of igniting things nearby, and the reaction generates its own oxygen, which makes extinguishing it far harder. As the OP said, theirs burned for two days and they even thought about burying it to stop it. If a gasoline fire needed two days to put out and burying was on the table, I'm fairly sure that would make the news too.

@raylan_pittNovember 01, 2026

Hold on, I have a few objections. First, the car was ancient, from the 1990s. Second, you yourself called it "really odd," so you clearly recognise it's an unusual event. And third, it's quite possible a kid lit it as a prank.

@gil_haskinsNovember 01, 2026

Seriously, you've never come across a petrol or diesel car catching fire on its own while being driven normally? Here's how I see it: there's a fire extinguisher in my EV, and it isn't there for my car's sake.

@raylan_pittNovember 01, 2026

Still, have you genuinely heard of a petrol or diesel vehicle igniting during ordinary driving? I don't mean at a fuel pump or after a crash, just cruising along as usual.

@gil_haskinsNovember 01, 2026

Yes. I've seen three with my own eyes, though I could only lend a hand at one of them, using that extinguisher I mentioned. Honestly I'm a bit surprised you haven't, if you spend much time on the road. This year alone, two diesel buses in my city burst into flames during regular running. Happily, the city is replacing them with electric ones.

@raylan_pittNovember 01, 2026

That's the puzzling part for me. After 20-odd years behind the wheel, I've never witnessed a spontaneous car fire or even heard about one. Maybe some lucky bubble surrounds me and keeps everyone nearby safe.

@gil_haskinsNovember 01, 2026

Maybe where you live people take better care of their vehicles. In New Zealand it's pretty common to see people driving 30-year-old bombs with leaking gaskets and an engine bay covered in a light coating of oil.

@raylan_pittNovember 01, 2026

That might explain some of it. The UK has an unusually big used-car market, especially before Covid (perhaps a bit less now, though I'm not sure whether the price spike has eased), so loads of people drive cars aged somewhere between 2 and 8 years. It could also simply be statistics, and I've just been lucky not to see many, even after covering several hundred thousand miles. Someone has to coast through life untouched, I suppose. Maybe I'll see one next week.

@raylan_pittNovember 01, 2026

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that. It would count as "spontaneous" by my definition, but it stems from a manufacturing flaw by one specific maker, and Kia is recalling every affected car. If spontaneous EV battery fires are likewise treated as defects tied to particular brands and particular circumstances, then I'd say the comparison is fair.

@mbrill_72November 01, 2026

Wow, that sounds awful. I hope everyone's okay!

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Everyone's fine. The only casualty was a Nissan, which got damaged :(

@corin_haskewNovember 01, 2026

Calling it "damaged" is an impressively understated way to put it! Still, I'm relieved everyone's okay, and losing the car is a real shame.

@ted_marchbanksNovember 01, 2026

Plenty of damaged Nissans are still driving around, ;) I hope your in-laws weren't kept up all night by a chemical fire raging uncontrolled right outside their home. It'd be great if wrecks like this got investigated the way aircraft incidents do. As other commenters have pointed out, the BMS ought to cut power from the battery right away whenever it spots a faulty cell.

@pete_morandNovember 01, 2026

Over in the Netherlands, firefighters use containers with half-height walls that a hose can be hooked up to. They flood them until the water reaches at least the axles so the battery is submerged, and then the car sits there for several days. It's the simplest way to clear vehicles safely. Another approach is the old-style sprinkler that gets slid underneath the car, but that eats up a lot of water, which is why the container method is preferred.

@mhalpin_20November 01, 2026

In case anyone's curious why: EV battery fires pretty much can't be extinguished. They oxidize themselves, generating their own oxygen without needing air, so ordinary extinguishers and fire blankets do nothing. Someone will probably bring up Class D extinguishers being rated for lithium fires, but that covers lithium METAL fires, not lithium-ion batteries. What you actually do is give the fire something that soaks up all that energy, like sand or water, and let it burn out. Commonly the fire department drapes a big specialized fire blanket over the car to contain it and lets it burn itself out underneath.

@connor_fitchNovember 01, 2026

Good to hear you all dealt with this well. I'm a bit surprised your local fire department has no plan or gear for EV fires, since burning EVs can be submerged or covered with a blanket, and there are established procedures. Lithium batteries do make their own oxygen, yet it's interesting that this one doesn't sound like a runaway fire at all, more like a slow, low-intensity burn that dragged on? Finally, the car's under warranty, so Nissan simply has to do the work to put this right. I trust it'll get sorted out.

@mhalpin_20November 01, 2026

Submerging and blanketing only contain a fire; neither one extinguishes it. Regular fire blankets also can't handle the heat for long enough, so battery fires need special ones. Provided the fire isn't at risk of spreading, or you're actively preventing that, it isn't a big problem. Either way you have to let it burn, because the battery oxidizes itself and produces so much heat that no quantity of water will quench it.

@connor_fitchNovember 02, 2026

That's right, but our fire department has bought both the special blankets and the submersion equipment. Norway also has far more EVs than most places: after years of battery-electric making up over 90% of private car sales, roughly a third of cars on the road here are electric.

@moorefield_jNovember 01, 2026

Water doesn't always put out chemical fires, and it can even carry uncontained chemicals around and make things worse. Many of the agents once used for such fires either won't work on this kind of fire or have been banned because of the environmental harm they cause. That leaves containment as the only option. Even aboard a ship, if mishandled chemicals like paint and cleaning products catch fire, the best response is to seal off the space and cool the surrounding areas until the fire burns out on its own.

@casper_loyNovember 01, 2026

Odd things happen with cars, sure, but EVs catch fire much less often than ICE vehicles do. What I don't get is why she would fast charge just a couple of miles from home. Wouldn't charging at home be cheaper?

@rennie_fNovember 01, 2026

I haven't come across a Leaf igniting a while after a quick charge; normally any fire starts during the charging itself. I'm curious what caused this one. Nissan should be keen to find out, but it doesn't sound like they are. Fascinating, really...

@lyman_k44November 01, 2026

My guess is the cells simply gave out: NMC doesn't cope well with heat and high current, particularly when that goes on for several years. Quick charging probably just pushed an already weakened pack over the edge.

@mrolfe_19November 01, 2026

I don't buy that it reached its thermal limits on the road. I've overheated my own battery several times, and the car clearly warns you and cuts motor power when that happens. Speculating about what the noises were or what went on doesn't help anyone. On one occasion I actually tried to keep the pack hot, accelerating and regenerating as aggressively as the car allowed, with the aim of overheating it. Even in 29 degree weather, the temperature went down by 3 degrees Celsius while I drove. So I doubt driving style mattered here. And why would slow driving be stressful for the pack? That's about the lowest sustained power draw there is, and I can't imagine this person's parents were racing other cars at every traffic light.

@mrolfe_19November 01, 2026

Then I take back what I said about the noises. I hadn't known that earlier cell failures produced sounds you could hear; I figured the clamping force would hold the pack's rough shape and the gas pressure would just rise until someone opened the pack. I'm still unsure a faster drive would have helped. At higher speeds the extra power draw barely cools the pack unless it's already close to its thermal limit. The one case where it might help is if the failing cell sat at the bottom of the pack. In my experience I've only brought pack temperature down by driving after hitting the thermal limit; otherwise you just leave the car parked for roughly an hour. Monitoring the temperature of each cell would be ideal, but with a 96S pack the wiring and readout would get really messy. I assumed a fast cell failure would show up as a voltage drop that the BMS could catch, but that evidently didn't occur here, since the car would have gone into turtle mode and then stopped. (Edit: I mean the voltage drop didn't happen, not the cell failing, which is certainly possible.) I hope an official NHTSA report comes out. I'd like to know whether I should keep replacing my car's 24kWh pack every 10 years, or whether I could sensibly move to a 40kWh pack backed only by my own warranty.

@rennie_fNovember 01, 2026

Current-generation packs have three temperature sensors placed around the pack. They do a decent job of reading average temperature, but they're poor at catching a hot spot quickly when one cell runs much hotter than the rest, particularly if it isn't near a sensor. My suspicion is that this is precisely what's stalling Nissan as it tries to build a firmware fix for the current battery recall. That said, I'd expect a completely failed cell to trigger an electrical fault and stop the car from driving, so it's strange that it didn't. If one overheating cell really was the cause, it resembles the issue behind the recall, which means either this car is an outlier with an older battery or the recall should be extended to later build dates. Or the fire may have had an entirely different cause. I hope we find out.

@lyman_k44November 01, 2026

I don't think it's even about that. The pack stayed inside the battery's temperature range. The cells had simply been physically stressed and degraded for so long that they quit. Compared with other chemistries, NMC can't handle being run at its limit for years.

@rory_catlinNovember 01, 2026

My 2019 Leaf is under a recall that says I shouldn't use the CHAdeMO charger, since some battery cells could overheat. They keep promising a fix within six months, yet two years have passed already.

@tolvanen_jNovember 01, 2026

That's what it comes to when the fire department ends up being your battery pack's active cooling system...

@lgrunwald_November 01, 2026

Fire departments where I live all have special containers by now, which they fill with water so a burning EV can be submerged, made for exactly this kind of situation. I honestly assumed that was standard everywhere by now...

@dusty_amesNovember 01, 2026

I just bought a 2018 and nobody ever said to avoid fast charging. We have a slow charger in our garage and only use that, but if we travel, should we really steer clear of fast charging?

@moorefield_jNovember 01, 2026

The whole process feels unsupported. That's no surprise, since it's highly politicized. If agencies get involved, they become tied to an EV fire and have to explain what they did. Also, there isn't much anyone can do until the fire is out. I wonder whether chemical runoff from the battery came from the fire department's efforts, though it sounds like the battery stayed intact.

@lcoleman_55November 01, 2026

There are basically four routes to an EV battery fire. First, a defect from the factory, though I haven't seen many recent Leaf fires blamed on that, so maybe it's not common there (I'm not certain). Second, overheating, which makes any manufacturing flaw worse and can itself be triggered by the third item. Third, a fault in the control system, such as overcharging or over-discharging, or letting the pack take in or put out power at a rate that heats it up under the wrong conditions. Fourth, physical damage to the pack; it's a car, so this does occur, but the packs tend to be fairly tough.

@vern_dacostaNovember 01, 2026

Nissan does put a warranty on the battery. If they refuse to cover it, your insurer ought to pay for the car, so let the insurance company fight it out with Nissan.

@nbayliss_November 01, 2026

Honestly, that doesn't strike me as a battery fire.

@tevis_marrNovember 01, 2026

I'm in the UK and wondering if I've overlooked something: how did you manage to fast charge at what looks like a normal house? Is it possible to run CHAdeMO off ordinary home electrics?

@tevis_marrNovember 02, 2026

Never mind, the answer was posted beneath the photo. The forum app is awful, so I've pulled the comments up to the top.

@tgarland_9November 01, 2026

As far as I know there's a battery recall covering the 2019-2020 Leafs, related to lithium deposits. Nissan's only remedy was a software update, which is a bit like having a large hole in the roof and being told not to worry about leaks because a software update is available.

@mike_sandorNovember 01, 2026

Is that a CHAdeMO station? It looks like somebody's home to me.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

It happened once charging was finished, not during it. Please read the post.

@mike_sandorNovember 01, 2026

I did read it. I was just joking around. Anyway, I really doubt how square the charger's jaw is has anything to do with what went wrong.

@nate_wilkinsNovember 01, 2026

If I've got it right, Leaf batteries were air cooled until this year. So it seems likely the pack got too hot from fast charging and then failed.

@dougherty_lNovember 01, 2026

This is the Leaf forum, and you only now found out the Leaf's battery went without liquid cooling for 14 years?

@nate_wilkinsNovember 01, 2026

I don't actually own one, and this is my first time posting here. I just assumed they'd sorted out cooling by now, the way every other major EV maker has. ![gif]giphy|3kzJvEciJa94SMW3hN)

@ned_pratherNovember 01, 2026

Burying the car? Seriously? That story smells made up to me.

@dougherty_lNovember 01, 2026

What surprises me is that Tesla doesn't station people across the country to pounce whenever a rival's car burns, so they can announce "See? Other brands' cars catch fire too!" Then again, I guess the genius in charge laid off the whole PR team. I couldn't find any news coverage of this. One article I turned up was about Port St. Lucie, but that car was silver and wasn't parked near a house, and another near Dallas involved a Gen1. It's also odd that this Leaf kept running fine with cells blowing up, when the slightest anomaly makes everyone else's Leaf shut itself down. Yours won't even start if it detects a heat pump fault. Shutting down wouldn't halt thermal runaway in the cells anyway, but a Leaf normally wouldn't let you carry on driving as though nothing were wrong.

@tkessinger_4November 01, 2026

Considering how little most people drive, I can't see why anyone would need more than a couple of ordinary household outlets to refill a car overnight. Charging that slowly is safer and easier on the battery, and once you factor in what fast chargers cost, you can basically run the car for free for years.

@olin_brewerNovember 01, 2026

That's been my routine for the past 18 months or so. There's an outlet in my garage; I plug in when I get home from work and unplug on my way out in the morning. I pick up roughly 11-12% each day, and my commute round trip eats about 4% of that. By my math I've saved around $3900 on gas compared with the Mercedes I traded in, while spending only about $250 on electricity over the same period. It should pay for itself within a few years, as long as electricity prices don't climb to match gas XD

@dquinlan_5November 02, 2026

I charge at L0.5 off solar, though I have to unplug the fridge to do it. Kidding, just put the fridge on the grid. My solar system is tuned for the EV, and it's only about 70% efficient for the fridge.

@tkessinger_4November 01, 2026

lol it'll earn back its cost way sooner than your neighbor's fancy super-fast charging outlet will!

@pete_garnseyNovember 01, 2026

So it got home okay and only then caught fire? How does that happen? Mine is one of the recalled cars, so I really want to know what the actual risk is and how to reduce it. I'd assumed the biggest danger came while DC fast charging.

@jlandis_34November 01, 2026

Ugh, my car is parked in the garage right below my bedroom.

@dave_ashgroveNovember 01, 2026

Why would the 2018 40kWh Leaf be unaffected by this problem when the 2019 got a recall over fire risk? I'm curious how the earliest second-generation LEAFs managed to dodge it. Does anyone know?

@mlund_47November 01, 2026

Figured this might interest you: there's a class action lawsuit now covering 2019 through 2022 Leafs.

@jules_pennNovember 01, 2026

Since the owners mentioned hearing noise from beneath the car, it's plausible that something got caught underneath, created friction, and ignited a fire that spread to the battery pack. That would have nothing to do with fast charging. I own a 2023 and have done several consecutive CHAdeMO road trips in temperatures above 100 degrees without any trouble.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Consider this, though. By noises under the car, I don't mean they knew they'd hit something; the car drove perfectly normally. If you hear sounds from below the seats, the natural guess is that debris is lodged down there, not that battery cells are blowing up. Also, the fact that your own Leaf charged without incident proves nothing. By that logic, I once ran over debris and no fire started, so it must never happen. Uno reverse right back at you!

@pmoritz_November 01, 2026

Anything large enough to do that would make an awful racket inside the cabin. And the pack has three layers of protection: the steel case, the battery structure, and the aluminum housing around every cell. You'd be dealing with thermite-level heat blasting straight into the pack.

@pete_callowayNovember 02, 2026

The Leaf 🍃: "All I want is to EXPLODE, AND PRETEND I DON'T KNOW ANYBODY!"

@dpoole_73November 01, 2026

This has now happened to three LEAFs in total, and this one is the third.

@wilf_barnesNovember 01, 2026

EV fires could well become more frequent as the vehicles age. The average EV on the road is more than five times younger than the average gas vehicle. NHTSA lists electrical faults as the top cause of gas car fires, and that comes down to age rather than anything inherent to gasoline (apart from the occasional manufacturing defect). For EVs, the leading cited cause is thermal runaway, which is tied directly to being an EV, and that is the real concern. Fires may be much rarer at the moment, but EVs make up only around 2% of vehicles on the road, and getting older may not treat them kindly.

@lhurley_08November 01, 2026

That list only counts fires blamed on a particular battery defect. Leafs also burn for ordinary car reasons, like someone smoking or a bad crash. If this one proves to be a tire fire that then ignited the battery, it will be removed from the list and the count drops back to two.

@pete_callowayNovember 01, 2026

Wow. That doesn't exactly give me confidence about the 2015 Leaf I just bought.

@lenny_fosseNovember 01, 2026

Honestly, you can't feel totally confident about most vehicles on that front. Gas-powered cars burn far more often than a mere 3 per year. Take the F-150 alone: 26 of them have caught fire over the past decade. Meanwhile the 24kWh Leaf pack has never once gone up in flames.

@lyman_k44November 01, 2026

A 2015 uses LMO chemistry, so this isn't a concern for it. Models from 2018 back to 2015 are a different story, though, since they use NMC, which is far more prone to burning and doesn't hold up over time without any sort of thermal management.

@ben_tilleryNovember 01, 2026

Kind of ironic, because the most recent reported Leaf fire was on August 14th, 2024, in Bradenton, Florida. It involved a 2020 Leaf hooked up to a ChargePoint unit, and the cause is still being investigated. Insurance paid for the car. Still, Leaf fires are incredibly rare, well under 1 in 100k. Nobody yet knows whether the fault lay with a defective DC fast charger or with the battery itself. Given that you admit you don't know much about what happened, why post at all? What are you hoping we'll tell you? Insurers deal with the legal side with the automaker and the charge point provider anyway.

@lhurley_08November 01, 2026

They posted because that's what social media is for. They wanted to hear our thoughts and hopefully pick up something useful, like phone numbers to ring and who to turn to for help.

@carla_denningNovember 01, 2026

You ask why someone would post when they don't know much about the issue, and what you're supposed to say to them. Look at the first line of OP's post: they said their main goal is to understand what happened and find the best resources to help with it, and that they don't want to spread fear about EVs.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Ha, yeah, great definition. Truth is, I generated the entire thing with AI purely to mess with you specifically.

@greg_ostravaNovember 01, 2026

Is the air conditioning involved in cooling the battery at all?

@rennie_fNovember 01, 2026

Nope. The AC system has no link to the battery whatsoever.

@rhanley_38November 01, 2026

That worries me. I did a lot of driving this summer, and every time I fast charged, my Leaf ended up really hot…

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

I don't own a Leaf, so I'm just curious what you mean by it being hot after fast charging. I drive a Nissan Ariya and have fast charged it a number of times, and nothing about the car seemed off to me.

@cfenn_88November 01, 2026

Thermal management on the Leaf's battery is pretty minimal, and it isn't liquid cooled.

@lgarnier_8November 01, 2026

Okay, I get that part. What throws me is that the people sitting in the car actually feel the heat inside the cabin. I find that pretty wild.

@lyman_k44November 01, 2026

Why do Americans keep spraying water on these fires? Water reacts with lithium, so all it does is make things worse. It's no surprise one of them ends up burning for two full days.

@mhaldane_72November 01, 2026

Thermal runaway is what's going on here, not the lithium reacting with the outside water. Hosing the pack down is meant to bring the temperature down and stop neighboring cells from getting dragged into it.

@gwen_ashlockNovember 01, 2026

Estou a passar por uma situação real em Portugal com um Nissan Leaf que comprei novo, com 0 km. Passados apenas 2 meses de utilização, o carro incendiou-se enquanto carregava, pondo em perigo pessoas e bens à volta. Foi logo entregue ao concessionário autorizado Caetano Power, onde se encontra há cerca de 6 meses. A perícia técnica foi feita no mesmo mês do incêndio, e mesmo assim a Nissan Portugal ainda não tomou nenhuma decisão final. Desde então, só me fazem as mesmas perguntas que já respondi várias vezes, e a análise não avança. Entretanto: • continuo a pagar o financiamento; • fiquei sem o carro que ia usar no trabalho; • tenho cobranças do banco e o risco de uma ação judicial; • a Nissan limita-se a repetir que "o caso está em análise". Há pouco tempo encontrei vários relatos e recalls internacionais do Nissan Leaf por risco de incêndio na bateria. Isto confirma como o problema é grave e faz-me duvidar seriamente da postura da marca neste caso.