Rivian electric pickup caught fire while charging at Electrify America station

A Rivian R1T electric pickup truck caught fire while charging at an Electrify America station in California yesterday.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

It’s important to keep in mind that electric vehicles are statistically less likely to catch on fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.

But electric vehicle fires can still happen, and sometimes they are worth noting as they have at times been traced back to battery problems leading to recalls, like in the case of the Chevy Bolt EV or, more recently, the Jaguar I-Pace.

Now we have learned of a Rivian R1T electric pickup truck catching on fire while charging at an Electrify America station in Mill Valley, California, last night.

A photo of the aftermath was shared on Reddit (via Thewildkin):

Interestingly, the battery pack doesn’t appear to be the problem here, but the damage indicates that the fire may have started around the charge port of the vehicle, which is located on the front driver side.

We contacted Rivian for a comment on the situation, and the company says that it is investigating the situation:

We are aware of the incident, and we are conducting a full investigation. Nobody was harmed, and at this time, it does not appear that the vehicle’s high voltage battery was involved.

We also contacted Electrify America, and we will update the article if we get a response.

Electrek’s Take

Obviously, this is being investigated and we are going to need more details. It could be the connector that got overheated. It could be a problem with the charge port. It could be a lot of things.

But a silver lining for Rivian is that despite what appeared to be a significant fire on the vehicle itself, it didn’t reach the battery pack. That’s fairly impressive.

It’s not only good for safety, but it will also help understand what happened with this vehicle since it is not burnt to a crisp.