Electric Car Explosion at Warming Hut
I read some very bizarre news this weekend- basically that, last Friday, an electric GM ca GEM car (thanks DDP), despite being unplugged, exploded next to the Warming Hut causing a fire that will close it for a month or so. Sad, and odd. Warming hut is in the Golden Gate National Rec Area – (Not to be confused with GGNRA). It’s a cafe and bookstore/toystore at the end of Crissy Field near the bridge, at Torpedo Wharf, you know, Torpedo Wharf (note: I have seen this only on one map and a historical interpretation and nobody has ever said it to me!).
It has a great menu for kids, and very good soy lattes. They grill your sandwich nice and hot, and you can sit on the pier and eat it and watch people illegally fish. As you can see, my routine will be seriously impacted now that it’s closed. Nice article on the sustainability measures taken into account when creating the Warming Hut.
That’s GEM, not GM. GM produced the EV1 and they recalled all of them and sent them to the crusher (go see/rent “Who Killed the Electric Car?”) over the vociferous objections of very satisfied owners.
The GEM is that thing that looks like a souped up golf cart. It’s marketed in the US by DaimlerChrysler. There’s a few in the window at the dealer around 16th @ Van Ness in the Mission.
Two possible causes: either bad electronics or someone souped the dang thing up with LiIon batteries (which tend to blow up – hence the Dell, Sony and Apple (Sony) laptop battery recalls of last year). They’re sold with old-tech lead-acid or gel-cell (non-spilly lead-acid) batteries, just like what’s been used in automobiles for the past century.