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Tesla Model S catches fire and burninates

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tesla fire
22K views 99 replies 53 participants last post by  jamesdawson 
#1 ·
From Tesla: “Yesterday, a Model S collided with a large metallic object in the middle of the road, causing significant damage to the vehicle. The car’s alert system signaled a problem and instructed the driver to pull over safely, which he did. No one was injured, and the sole occupant had sufficient time to exit the vehicle safely and call the authorities. Subsequently, a fire caused by the substantial damage sustained during the collision was contained to the front of the vehicle thanks to the design and construction of the vehicle and battery pack. All indications are that the fire never entered the interior cabin of the car. It was extinguished on-site by the fire department.”



What caught fire. I though Tesla's "superior" battery pack stopped fires? Is this just hydraulic brake fluid?
 
#2 ·
[Glass half full]
Well call me impressed. If something similar happening with the fuel tank in a gasser, the only message associated would probably be a post-mortem obituary.
Having written a lot of computer code, I can only imagine what the programming was like behind the sensor conditions and subsequent message. So you are at the last line of your if-then-else block and you get to the 'else' and realize HOLY CRAP, if this condition is met you better jump out because flames will soon erupt. I wish the fraud prevention department at Discover Card had such intuitive programmers. Their programmers would either have me exiting the car 3 months before it caught on fire or after my carcass was already well done.
 
#15 ·
Maybe it looks like this:

Code:
    ...
    } else if (temperatureSensor.value < EN_FUEGO) {
        ... // Handle normal over-temperature values...
    } else {
        // Holy Crap, Batman. Tell everyone to get their asses out of the car, pron-to.
        // mainScreen.alert("Yo, Dude, Get your sorry asses out of the car before it blows to smithereens.");
        // That's not professional. Try this instead:
        mainScreen.alert("Please pull the vehicle over and exit the vehicle as soon as practical.\nEmergency services have been notified.");
        // That's better...
    }
 
#4 ·
To keep this in perspective, we don't know why it caught flame yet, there's some speculation that it hit the gas tank of an ICE vehicle and that triggered the flames, probably from a broken battery pan.

To keep it further in perspective, ICE vehicles burn rather frequently when wrecked.
 
#8 ·
looks like the bumper wrap around is burning. any ideas about how it lit would be nothing but speculation. As others have noted, there could be 10 car fires a day in that metro area without any media coverage, but one electric has a problem and it makes a story. this is the case when light aircraft have anything bad happen as well: 3 auto related fatalities a week in our area barely get coverage, but one little cessna landing on an an interstate makes the 11:00 pm news with on site film and interviews....
 
#18 ·
#9 ·
The batteries used in the Tesla are WAY more dangerous than what is used in the Volt or the Leaf. Those cells score well on the cost and energy density front but aren't the safest. However, it looks like the fire is at the front of the car. The battery is on the floor.

Either way hopefully no one was seriously hurt.
 
#11 ·
Excellent to see we are reserving judgment until the facts are known. We know firsthand how the news likes to jump to conclusions first, get answers later. You can bet the anti-EV crowd has already decided (without evidence) that batteries are the cause, that EV's are unsafe, and other unfounded conclusions.

As is noted, over a quarter million ICE car fires a year and it's hardly noticed.
 
#13 · (Edited)
What's weird with that fire is that it appears in the video to be entirely confined to the front of the car, mostly ahead of the front axle and entirely ahead of the firewall.

I don't know what was burning, but it seems unlikely that it has anything to do with the battery pack, the forward most portions of which are right near the rear of the area engulfed in flames.

From my recollection, the A/C compressor, three radiators, the electric steering booster, and the braking system are the main things up front - none of which seems like a terribly like candidate for combustion.

Color me confused, and hopefully we'll get more details later. :)

Edit: After reading through the extensive thread on the incident at the TMC forum, the most prevalent theory seems to be some sort of limited damage to the battery pack and it venting forward into the Frunk area? Still lots of questions there, and lots more in my mind. The Police statement seemed to say that he hit something up on the freeway at high speed and took the exit ramp because he was worried, then the car warned him of a failure.
 
#14 ·
Maybe the owner modified the front headlights with ballasts, HID bulbs that don't quite fit and wired into the wrong battery wiring?

I see the stock dropped a bit too. Glad everyone is ok, and I'm curious what the cause was... Maybe something flammable was put in the "frunk" that ignited.
 
#16 · (Edited)
The fisker karma parking lot fire was caused by a short circuit in a cooling fan in the engine compartment. Tesla also had four roadster fires in the last decade, partly associated with wire size being too small for the roadster's 12V bus.

The driver has the whole story and perhaps is waiting for legal representation before talking. Hit something, crush some wires, cause a short in a flammable zone and you have a fire. Now, if the something he hit was big enough to gouge into the big battery and it pierced and exposed some cells, that would be a much bigger issue. Those cells are surrounded by some retardant material but if exposed and pierced, thermal runaway is almost assured due to their energy density.
 
#19 ·
A muffler can probably cause damage under the car, knowing the Tesla.S gets low to the ground at higher speeds.... just guessing...
 
#20 · (Edited)
Firefighters Say Tesla Car Fire Involved Battery



Tesla shares have been overvalued, but this is piling on:

Shares of Wall Street darling Tesla Motors fell 6% Wednesday after the high-flying stock was downgraded by an investment house and pictures and video of a mysterious Tesla Model S fire circulated on the Internet.

The shares dropped $12.05 to close at $180.95. Tesla has seen a huge run-up in its stock this year, as it has ramped up sales of its luxury electric cars. The stock traded at just above $35 on Jan. 2.

On Wednesday, auto enthusiast website Jalopnik posted a reader-submitted video that showed the front of a Tesla engulfed in flames on a rainy street in the Seattle area.

Tesla confirmed that one of its cars caught on fire after the driver struck unidentified metal debris on the roadway.

The crash caused “significant damage to the vehicle,” Tesla said, adding that the car’s alert system signaled a problem and instructed the driver to pull over safely. No one was injured.

A fire then caused “substantial damage” to the front of the vehicle. Tesla said that the design and construction of the vehicle and battery pack limited the spread of the fire, which was extinguished by the local fire department.

...

Tesla, which is among the best-performing stocks this year, also ran into head winds from a new report issued by Robert W. Baird & Co. that said the electric car maker could have trouble expanding production and developing new models. Baird & Co. downgraded Tesla to a neutral expectation from its previous assessment that the shares would outperform the market.
Read the full story here:

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-models-fire-20131002,0,3965564.story

Explosion Motor vehicle Fire Vehicle Car
 
#24 ·
Tesla has confirmed that the fire started in the battery. The WA Highway Patrol has reported the driver said he believed he hit something metal on the road, after which he exited the highway. The car indicated that there was a problem and then started burning.

Not good. This doesn't seem to be a significant accident. Maybe having the battery in the floor is not the best design choice?
 
#27 ·
Let's not gloat over this. There is nothing that the anti-EV crowd likes more than EV enthusiast infighting. I love my Volt as much as anybody, but we have to support all EVs. That said, coming to any conclusions about the safety of Tesla's design after a single fire is no less irresponsible than Fox attacking the Volt after the single Volt fire.
 
#29 ·
#31 ·
Until we know more I'd take a wait and see attitude. No sense in running around in circles claiming the sky is falling. How many ICE vehicles were involved in "firey incidents" in the last 24 hours in America? And yet not a single news story.
 
#32 ·
What in the world caused the Tesla driver to drive over a 'large metal object' laying on the road? Once I ran over a raccoon in my Volt which sidelined me for a week and cost $3500 to fix (cooling system components, etc.), but that was because the poor creature bolted out of the darkness and into my path, giving me no time to react before getting run over.

I've often wondered about the vulnerability of the skateboard kind of battery found in the Tesla, more thinking of side impact damage than damage from running over debris. Looks like Tesla owners might think of carrying a fire extinguisher onboard.
 
#33 ·
What in the world caused the Tesla driver to drive over a 'large metal object' laying on the road?
Possibilities:
1. Following too close to another vehicle resulting in inadequate response time to avoid road debris.
2. Looking at/playing with the center display screen instead of the road
3. Talking/texting on a cell phone.
 
#36 ·
Even the safest car may not be good enough for:

-- poorly designed, built, and unmaintained roads
-- careless and reckless other drivers
-- careless and reckless owner and occupants

One thing that disturbs me is that when people see a car on fire no one jumps with a fire extinguisher to try to put it out. I wonder how many drivers even have a fire extinguisher on board and why is it not a mandatory safety equipment in this country.
 
#37 ·
What caught fire. I though Tesla's "superior" battery pack stopped fires? Is this just hydraulic brake fluid?
If you LOOK at the video the fire seems to be coming from the front of the car. Most of the batteries are under the floor pan below the passenger compartment. Looks to me like the front of the car was damaged and shorted out some electronics. Modern cars are made mostly of PLASTIC. PLASTIC BURNS!

Most of the fire you see is coming from burning PLASTIC. Not batteries.
 
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