Question: Why does NSW Fire and Rescue regard electric vehicles as special hazards, and what does that mean for strata buildings?
NSW Fire and Rescue currently regards electric vehicles as “special hazards”. How did they reach this conclusion?
Is it compulsory to have a fire installation/certification performed after installing electrical vehicle charging hardware? The current national construction code in the 2025 draft does not mention electric vehicles as special hazards. However, fire sprinklers must be installed in a new building if there are over 40 vehicles present, regardless of their traction type.
Answer: NSW Fire and Rescue currently regard electric vehicles as special hazards, but the Australian Building Codes Board (ACBC) disagrees.
NSW Fire and Rescue currently regards electric vehicles as special hazards. They have this view because EV fires are very low-frequency but high-consequence events. For a point of clarification, there have been 10 EV fires in 14 years in Australia. There are over 10 petrol/diesel vehicle fires per day in Australia. Seven in NSW alone.
However, the ACBC CEO disagrees. Gary Rake, the CEO of the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB), clarified that the presence of electric vehicles (EVs) and EV chargers in car parks is now considered common enough to no longer be classified as a “special hazard” under the National Construction Code (NCC). This means that the “special hazard” clauses, which typically trigger more stringent safety requirements, should not be invoked solely based on the presence of EVs and their charging infrastructure.
Our understanding is that NSW Fire and Rescue submitted their special hazard request to the ACBC, but this was knocked back on the intended interpretation of special hazard in the NCC 5, which is that the presence of EVs and EV chargers is now common, should not be considered special and therefore is not sufficient to invoke the ‘special hazard’ clauses. We believe NSW new construction and existing strata sites are governed by the NCC and therefore, there are no special hazards considerations. But always good to check with your strata insurer.
This post appears in the July 2025 edition of The NSW Strata Magazine.
Charlie Richardson NOX Energy E: charlie.richardson@noxenergy.com.au P: 0415 513 636