Jay,

The battery was not 4 years old, we have been using the brand/type for about 4 years. At this stage we think it may have got a knock while traveling from the UK. We are fairly careful with the batteries. The battery was not hot, or wet. The team makes an effort to ensure electrical devices are mounted in sensible locations to avoid ignition, and heat effects.

The scary thing was that there was no warning that it was going to happen. One moment the car is running fine, the next the battery was going up. I am sure that some damaging event occurred at some point, we just can't identify what it was.

We are now in the process of going through the accident report and generating procedures to reduce the likelihood of it re-occurring as well as better procedures in the case of a fire.

Out of curiosity how long do teams run these batteries for? Also which lithium batteries (regardless of cost) meet the requirements?

Kev