In Austria, the first kilometres in a brand new Alfa Romeo Tonale PHEV ended in a big disappointment for the new owner. Specifically, the Plug-in Hybrid version of the Italian SUV stopped after driving only 53 km. A local towing company was called to pick up a car with a hybrid drive due to a technical defect.
After the tow truck had loaded the vehicle, a fire broke out in the high-voltage components. The fire department began to extinguish the fire with just water. The summoned special units for incidents involving HV vehicles also arrived with a container.
For immobilising the vehicle and disabling the high-voltage circuit, the indispensable information in the Crash Recovery System was used, the only digital information system in which the rescue sheet of this Tonale PHEV is already available. The query was very simple, using the Alfa’s license plate number in the license plate number selection procedure in the CRS.
After the deactivation, the vehicle was placed in the container for a dry quarantine. Temperature sensors monitored the battery and as a result, it could be determined whether the battery would respond.
