Porsche Cayenne Battery Tragedy

[psv]

Horrific

[CDNWatchNut]

Originally Posted by Abdullah71601

IDLH (immediate death) concentrations for H2S are around 0.1%. Hydrogen sulfide is not a normal lead acid battery byproduct. It's hard to imagine the circumstances that would need to occur for a car battery to generate percent levels of H2S without simultaneously off gasing copious quantities of hydrogen, sulfuric acid vapor, and SOx.

To Greggs point, the acid fumes would be pretty offensive, and the burning eyes and throat from acid vapor would not desensitize or go away. Something else had to be going on.

Correct, 0.1% H2S in air, or 1000 ppm can result in immediate death. I don't understand battery chemistry and the potential for abnormal conditions to know if the level of H2S off-gassing is enough to drive such a concentration in a rapid manner. Either way, if the battery was the cause of death, it seems like a tragedy that could easily have been prevented by (first and foremost) putting safety ahead of other factors in the vehicle design. Designers should not rely on the average person to understand proper mitigation of the risks inherent to a poor design.

[VICI]

Originally Posted by GB-man

What an idiotic design decision. Particularly on such a large vehicle. Makes no sense.

Totally agree. Completely stupid for any reasons!

[Abdullah71601]

Originally Posted by CDNWatchNut

Correct, 0.1% H2S in air, or 1000 ppm can result in immediate death. I don't understand battery chemistry and the potential for abnormal conditions to know if the level of H2S off-gassing is enough to drive such a concentration in a rapid manner. Either way, if the battery was the cause of death, it seems like a tragedy that could easily have been prevented by (first and foremost) putting safety ahead of other factors in the vehicle design. Designers should not rely on the average person to understand proper mitigation of the risks inherent to a poor design.

I'm not entirely comfortable with lead acid batteries in the breathing envelop. But, this doesn't seem like a battery problem. The chemistry doesn't support lethal levels of H2S from battery processes. I think the investigation missed something or the media got the explanation wrong.