Fact check: Video shows exploding compressed natural gas vehicle, not electric car

Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Video shows electric vehicle explosion

A Facebook video shows a vehicle exploding at what appears to be a fueling station. A red object is projected away from the vehicle and flies off camera only to return and strike a nearby person.

"I see electric car charging is getting safer," reads the caption of the March 28 post (direct link, archive link).

The video was shared more than 24,000 times in eight days.

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Our rating: False

The video shows the explosion of a compressed natural gas vehicle, not an electric vehicle.

Compressed natural gas vehicle exploded in Uzbekistan

The video in the social media post was recorded Feb. 25, according to a timestamp in a YouTube version of the video. This is also the date multiple news sources in Uzbekistan reported a compressed natural gas vehicle exploded at a filling station in Samarkand, a city in the southeastern part of the country.

The reports include a photo of the destroyed vehicle from the video, captured from a different angle.

Saša Milojević, a mechanical engineering adviser at the University of Kragujevac who has researched compressed natural gas vehicle safety, told USA TODAY the vehicle seen in the video was not electric.

"This cannot be an explosion from electrical devices," he said in an email. "This is a gas vehicle explosion. The parts that flew off were from the gas tank."

EV Firesafe, an Australian company that researches electric vehicle fires, posted a similar message on Facebook, saying the explosion occurred in a compressed natural gas vehicle.

"NOT an electric vehicle incident," reads the March 30 post. "A viral video captioned as 'Electric car explosion' or similar has been doing the rounds. This has been verified as a CNG – compressed natural gas – vehicle, a Chevrolet Nexia 3, that exploded at a staffed refueling for reasons yet unknown. Sadly a staff member working at the site was killed in the incident."

About half of the cars in Uzbekistan are powered by compressed natural gas, according to a 2022 International Energy Agency report.

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A statement about the incident was posted on a Facebook page listed as belonging to the Samarkand emergency services department. A Google translation of a portion of the statement reads:

"Today, on February 25, at 11:30 a.m., while filling compressed gas – methane – into a gas cylinder of a Nexia 3 car manufactured in 2019 at Kamalak LLC located on M. Bedil Street, Samarkand, the gas cylinder burst. As a result of the accident, the citizen M.Z, born in 1980 ... died on the spot. FYI, no one else was injured. There was no fire at the scene. The cause of the incident is currently being investigated."

The statement then requests drivers "strictly follow the technical requirements for the use of gas cylinders installed in their vehicles."

The post includes photos of the destroyed vehicle and a broken red tank that appears to be the object that struck the person in the video. The tank is labeled "CNG," a common abbreviation for "compressed natural gas."

The national Uzbekistan emergency services ministry did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the Facebook user who posted the video.

The claim was also debunked by Australian Associated Press.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Video shows exploding natural gas car, not EV