The vehicle's battery was not damaged and did not catch fire.
The cargo area was full of fuel and explosives - in the form of firework mortars.
Explosives and fuel make a good fireball and fire. Fireworks being a 2 stage explosive (launch and pretty explosion), they may have expected the initial bang to disburse the fuel and the second to detonate it as a fuel/air explosive which would be very damaging, enough to take down the building.
Obviously were that their goal they did not sufficiently test. The vehicle contained the initial explosion and all they got was a fire
And the blast and fire exited through the passenger cabin, killing the driver. I hope it wasn't a valet.
I wonder if it was triggered accidentally early or badly set up and detonated on its own or remotely triggered too early.
I bet they thought they'd light up the battery. Poor quality bombers
I've seen a source (poor quality source, won't quote) that identifies the likely suspect as a former green beret. Also, CNN says:
Authorities suspect that the driver had a background in military service, according to several law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.
They should not be poor quality bombers. In fact, they should be able to build a decent bomb by heart in several ways, if they learned anything at all.
I'm at loss regarding what this guy actually intended to happen, and whether he achieved that.
Hypothesis A, inspired by claims of links to the New Orleans attack: failed terrorist suicide bombing?
Hypothesis B: intended to do big time vandalism and live, but something went wrong?
Military experience doesn't necessarily equate to McGyvering.
I did a tour as an Army scout. I can shoot a lot of weapons, use knives and other non pyrotechnic weapons, set-up mines, claymores, use plastic, even creative uses for mortar rounds and grenades, but we were never given training on things like making bombs out of windex and a mars bar
Military experience is so random sometimes. I was in the regular, not special in any way, infantry and came away with how to do everything for an IED from make the ANFO, to putting it together, and how to hit a moving vehicle with it. To be fully honest it was also quite a while ago and now some of it is pretty vague in my head. But I would be unsurprised to find out other people kept notes from those days.
The presence of fuel suggests he wanted to do major damage but did not know how to properly capitalize on it's use. Sadly special operations guys are at high risk for CTE stuff. So it's entirely possible he was living a distorted reality.
There are reports of a firework mortar and gas canister in the back. Looks very intentional and showy from the video. Stupid way to end one's life, but that was part of it I think as well.