If you happen to needed an ideal description of the idea of irony, meet the British firm that makes 6×6 variations of the favored Toyota HiLux, designed to go the place common hearth vehicles don’t dare and subsequently struggle the type of fires that ignite and persist when an electrical automobile catches on hearth.

Prospeed Motorsport (based mostly in York, UK) has created an all-new firetruck out of Australia’s finest promoting ute, the Toyota HiLux. The corporate is presently testing the automobile in Europe within the hope that it may develop into a suburban hearth preventing system to sort out trendy fires like these brought on by electrical automobiles.

Appropriately named the HiLoad, the mini-firetruck is surprisingly compact at simply 1850mm tall, that means it may get out and in of buying centre automotive parks the place EVs could probably run into points.

Most EV fires begin small then hit what scientist name a “thermal runaway” occasion, whereby the broken lithium-ion battery modules generate a lot warmth in a chemical response that the hearth turns into extremely intense, in some circumstances taking days to place out. As such, the HiLoad carries particular instruments to forestall this from going down.

Whereas it additionally carries many of the common gear {that a} full-size firetruck wants, it additionally comes with a ColdCut Cobra hearth suppression system which the corporate claims makes use of an “extremely excessive stress lance” to blast abrasive materials suspended in water at 4,350psi.

In line with Prospeed, the literal liquid spear can break by even the hardest of battery casings in order that firefighters can get water immediately on prime of the battery modules which are on hearth in virtually any electrical automotive and put out the hearth with round 227L of water (60 gallons).

In case you might be hoping to purchase a 6×6 Toyota HiLux in your personal private use, it’s good to know the automobile has a payload-carrying capability of three tonnes and as long as you will get the automobile complied, it’s certainly accessible in right-hand drive.