This Toyota Hilux fire truck has six wheels and was created specifically for electric vehicle fires

If you are familiar with EVs, you are aware of two facts regarding their connection with fire: first, they are considerably less likely to catch fire than petrol cars; and second, they are also much more difficult to put out once they are on fire.

For subterranean and multi-story parking lots, this presents a challenge: how can you prevent an electric car from acting like a match in a hay barn when a fire engine can't get to it?

A British business, however, believes it has the solution. The (count 'em) six-wheeled Hiload "rapid intervention vehicle" you see above was created by Prospeed Motorsport.

Based on the unbreakable Toyota Hilux pickup, only the chassis and torque splitter have been changed in order to prevent "cut and shut" of the original vehicle.

Gross vehicle weight (GVW) increases to 5,600 kg, yielding a payload slightly under three tonnes, but importantly, the height is 1,850 mm, making it possible to enter parking lots with height restrictions that regular trucks would pass over with a shrug.

The ColdCut Cobra system, which utilises "an abrasive suspended in water" to puncture through a car's floor at 300bar and get directly to an EV's battery, may also be installed on the Hiload 6x6. In this manner, a fire may be put out with less water than would fill a bathtub in under ten minutes.

The business asserts that this is more efficient (and less wasteful) than earlier methods of preventing what is known as "thermal runaway" of the cells, including the tried-but-boring technique of submerging a burning BEV for a number of days.

And Prospeed Motorsport believes the Hiload might save large fires that have seen hundreds of vehicles and even buildings burnt by a single electric car by bringing personnel and water to EV fires as rapidly as possible.

Testing special fire-fighting truck Toyota Hilux 6x6 at Kopřivnice