A video shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, claims to show an explosion caused by a collision of two electric vehicles. 

Two electric cars collide.

BOOM… exploding batteries.

Do petrol cars do this? pic.twitter.com/0kYuhJwTiN

— DD Denslow 🇬🇧 (@wolsned) August 31, 2023

Verdict: False

The video is miscaptioned. The explosion was not caused by electric cars, but rather 119 gas cylinders.

Fact Check:

Following the recent landfall of Hurricane Idalia in Florida, some electric vehicles have caught fire after being submerged in saltwater, according to CBS News. Floridians have been urged to move their electric vehicles, golf carts and scooters to higher ground to try to mitigate risk, USA Today reports.

The X video appears to show a fire with repeated explosions at the side of a highway. “Two electric cars collide. BOOM… exploding batteries. Do petrol cars do this?” the caption reads.

The video is miscaptioned, however. It is not recent and does not depict a fire caused by electric vehicles. A reverse image search reveals that the video was posted to YouTube on July 15, 2013, with the title “The Russian car with gas cylinders accident.” Its caption indicates that it was taken in Moscow, Russia. 

119 gas cylinders exploded in the back of an Isuzu truck after it got into an accident with a bus on the Moscow Ring Road in July 2013, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.(RELATED: No, Viral Video Does Not Show Electric Car Fire At U.S. Warehouse)

A California news outlet also posted the footage with the headline “Watch as a Russian truck crashes, blows up, and keeps blowing up.”