Experimental Hybrid Car's Explosion Leaves Researcher Dead, Student Injured

A prototype hybrid electric car has exploded in Naples, Italy, killing one person and injuring another.

The 66-year-old researcher Maria Vittoria Prati and trainee student Fulvio Filace, 25, were traveling in the car along the Naples ring road when it exploded on Friday, causing both to suffer severe third-degree burns.

The pair, both with the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) research institute, were rushed to the Antonio Cardarelli Hospital in a critical condition, newspaper la Repubblica reported. Prati had 90 percent burns, while Filace was burned across 70 percent of his body. On Monday, Italian news outlet Open Online said that Prati had died from her injuries.

The car is thought to have been a Volkswagen Polo hybrid prototype from a research project involving the Motor Institute of the CNR and the University of Salerno in Italy.

CNR director Riccardo Chirone told la Repubblica that the car is "a prototype entrusted to the University of Salerno for a European research project on the hybridization of engines, of which the CNR is not a partner, and tests are also carried out on the street."

Hybrid vehicles usually have an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, with the batteries being charged via regenerative braking and using energy from the internal combustion engine. Electric and hybrid cars have exploded in the past on multiple occasions, frequently including Tesla models: as of November 2022, there are 44 known cases of deaths involving incidents of Tesla car fires. Hybrid cars are particularly prone to explosions and fires, due to the presence of a gasoline engine so close to the high-powered electric battery system.

The Naples car is thought to have exploded due to the ignition of unnamed but presumably flammable materials within cylinders on board. However, the exact cause of the explosion is yet to be determined.

The Public Prosecutor of Naples has opened an investigation into the case.

"My cousin Fulvio is stable, and both he and his family are receiving extraordinary support from the medical team who follow him with great professionalism and humanity. Now all our energies are concentrated so that he can recover as soon as possible," Filace's cousin, Fabio Corsaro, told local news Corriere della Sera, in a translated quote.

The cousin expressed his dismay at why Filace had been put at risk in such a manner.

Corsaro said: "I believe it is essential that it be clarified why a trainee close to graduation had been designated for that position to transport evidently dangerous material together with a researcher. What is the added value for an internship offered by such an activity remains a mystery.

"We have not yet received any contact from the CNR," Corsaro added. "We are waiting for the investigations to take their course to give a sense or an explanation to this tragedy that has struck a 25-year-old young man who is about to graduate in mechanical engineering, dreams of working at Ferrari and has many projects to realize."

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