Every time a dramatic video shows an electric vehicle engulfed in flames, the same claim races across social media: EVs catch fire more often than gas cars.
But the best available 2026 data points in the opposite direction. When researchers and fire officials compare fire risk the way safety experts actually do, by rates per vehicle on the road or per miles driven, electric-car fires remain rare and don’t appear more frequent than fires in gasoline-powered vehicles, according to figures compiled from fire departments, insurers, and academic analyses cited by Canada’sJournal de Québec.
The key problem with the viral narrative is math, not mystery. The U.S. and Canada still have far more gas cars than EVs, so raw totals will naturally show more gasoline-vehicle fires. That doesn’t mean gas cars are “worse” in every case, it means you can’t compare totals without adjusting for exposure.
Why the videos feel like proof, even when the rates don’t
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Two forces drive the perception that EVs are uniquely fire-prone. First, lithium-ion battery fires can take longer to fully extinguish, sometimes requiring extended cooling, monitoring, or specialized tactics depending on local protocols. That makes for more dramatic scenes, and more shareable footage.
Second, the comparison people make is often skewed from the start. With gasoline vehicles still dominating the overall fleet, they will produce more fires in sheer numbers. Safety analysts instead look at standardized rates, fires per 10,000 vehicles or per billion miles traveled, so the comparison reflects risk, not market share.
Those rate-based comparisons also separate causes: crashes, electrical faults, external fires spreading to the vehicle, arson, or fuel-system problems. Lumping everything together can distort what’s actually happening on the road.
Battery fires can be harder to manage, not necessarily more likely
Emergency responders flag a real operational difference: a battery fire can reignite after it appears to be out, which can require continued surveillance and cooling. That complexity can leave the impression that EV fires are more common.
But complexity isn’t the same as probability. The data cited byJournal de Québecdoesn’t support the idea that EVs are more likely to catch fire than comparable gasoline vehicles once you adjust for how many are on the road and how far they’re driven.
Gas cars and EVs carry different risks, and different failure points
Gasoline vehicles combine a fuel tank, flammable vapors, fuel lines, a very hot engine, and an exhaust system, components firefighters have been dealing with for generations. EVs store energy in a large battery pack designed with protective structures, sensors, and automatic shutoff systems.
Both types of vehicles can burn. The mechanisms differ, and that’s exactly why experts insist on normalized statistics rather than viral anecdotes. When the numbers are adjusted properly, the electric side isn’t showing up as an outlier.
What’s changing in 2026: more EVs means more visible incidents
As the EV fleet grows, the number of incidents people can record and post grows with it. That can make it feel like the problem is exploding, even if the underlying rate stays low.
The better question isn’t whether you’re seeing more videos. It’s whether the fire rate per vehicle, or per mile driven, is rising. On that measure, the analyses highlighted byJournal de Québecsay the gap between perception and reality is still wide.
