So here is my take on the whole battery fire thing; maybe it's not as different a view as I think it is, but I think the focus in the media and even here and the teslamotors.com forum is off base. Simply put, it is a financial issue (in that insurance rates could be pushed higher and that the perception issues could hurt sales) but not a safety issue. There have been three fires, but all have been caused by significant impacts to the battery. This is an important point because these are not spontaneous fires, such as with the Boeing 787. In fact, the safety of the car--including fire safety--is outstanding. In the first fire, the car sustained a major blow from a sharp, curved piece of metal with so much force that it pierced a quarter inch of steel and punctured the battery. The result was that the car warned the driver, who safely exited. Would an ICE vehicle do that before a fire? The second one was the result of a massive accident (and some downright awful driving) that would likely have resulted in the driver's death in another vehicle. Instead, the fire was an afterthought, and neither the wreck nor the fire seriously injured the driver. Finally, the most recent fire was the biggest disappointment as one wouldn't expect a trailer hitch to total a car (sure, it could cause major damage to an ICE, but a total loss would be pretty unlikely!).
However, after millions of miles of driving, there have been three fires, no injuries, and at least two of the incidents would likely have been as bad as or worse in an ICE vehicle. So mostly we and the media are fretting over the trailer hitch incident. Again, I would reiterate this is NOT a safety issue. It sucks that it can happen, but this is one of 20,000 cars, and in both non-stupid cases the driver was given a friendly warning, and the ensuing fires were safely directed away from the cabin. So I guess my point is that this seems terribly overblown, at least for now. All the talk of modifying the cars seems terribly premature. Or is it just me?!
However, after millions of miles of driving, there have been three fires, no injuries, and at least two of the incidents would likely have been as bad as or worse in an ICE vehicle. So mostly we and the media are fretting over the trailer hitch incident. Again, I would reiterate this is NOT a safety issue. It sucks that it can happen, but this is one of 20,000 cars, and in both non-stupid cases the driver was given a friendly warning, and the ensuing fires were safely directed away from the cabin. So I guess my point is that this seems terribly overblown, at least for now. All the talk of modifying the cars seems terribly premature. Or is it just me?!