SAE Panel Says It’s Official: New Refrigerant Is Safe

An SAE International-backed review of refrigerant R-1234yf has formally concluded that the risk of the material catching fire in a car crash is nearly six orders of magnitude less than the risk of vehicle fires from all causes.

SAE's final report reiterates the group's earlier assessment that concerns raised last year by Daimler AG about the refrigerant were based on "unrealistic" test conditions.

The SAE cooperative research project estimates the risk of fire exposure when using R-1234yf is about 3 x 10^-12 per vehicle operating hour. That compares with an overall vehicle fire risk of about 1 x 10^-6 per vehicle operating hour, which is well below other risks accepted by the general public.

The review group notes that its the newly calculated risk factors agree with estimates made previously by others.

Carmakers who participated in the assessment were Chrysler-Fiat, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault and Toyota.

The European Union mandated the use of R-1234yf in new vehicles sold there since the beginning of 2013. Daimler defied the EU ruling. declaring it would continue to use R-134a, the previous industry standard material, until the safety issue was resolved.

R-1234 has a global warming potential rating of 4 compared with 1,430 for R-134a.