After all this focus on the three fires, it's important not to forget how safe the Model S is. There have been many crashes already, many pretty serious, and in most cases there has been no fire at all. And as fas as I can tell there has not been any serious injury yet. In case of a crash I wouldn't want to be in any other car than a Model S. Here's a lot of crashes that did NOT result in a fire, nor serious injuries for the occupants of the Model S. In one case unfortunately the two occupants of another car died. I hope the Tesla-owners involved in these crashes, including several forum members, do not mind me posting these pictures to prove how safe the Model S is. At the end there is the recent clip of a Model S driving over big pieces of a concrete barrier - talk of road debris - and doing just fine. (P.S. I wasn't able to remove the last picture, which is too big, but keeps on coming back as an attachment after removal) [Moderator: Fixed it for you] - - - Updated - - - Can a moderator change the title from 'crashed' to 'crashes'? Thanks
Nicely assembled, Right_Said_Fred. This is the statistical reality that needs to get out: not every crash leads to a fire. The sensationalist media would have you believe the opposite. Only very odd circumstances where something wallops the underside of the pack has *sometimes* caused a fire...twice out of how many such incidents, one wonders. Several folks here on TMC have driven over bad objects with no such result (though I believe one pack was replaced as a precautionary measure).
Got it. I saw the problem with the final picture also - resized that and included it back in the post.
@Right_Said_Fred You had a very good idea. IMO the NHTSA should give a look to this thread before of giving an assessment to their investigation on the latest fire.
This thread is a little painful to look at... all those lovely Model Ses, and probably all totaled... --- Well, except for the one who drove over the wreckage from the crashed big rig. That guy impresses me with his driving skills. Have we found out who it was?
Heh, I like the inclusion of NHTSA pix. ;-) Shoot, at least the Model S does not burst into flames like the iPad air. ;-) (I'm mostly kidding; it's no more fair to pick on that.)
For me, one of the most impressive videos I have seen was the Model S side impact test, comparing that footage to luxury Euros, it seems like the Model S is two or three generations ahead in safety.
For completeness, and for the whole picture: This one has been posted above: Image credit: Unknown. But this hasn’t. Here’s what the front of this car looked like: Original source: Tesla head on collision with a Honda (Pictures in post #159.) And here’s some info about this accident, with a picture of the other car:
There is a car fire every 96 seconds in USA and only TESLA gets the attention it is getting. Please see National Vehicle Fire Statistics | Chandler Law Group this a classic case of "better you are, higher you are. Higher you are, more people are going to take shots at you, which does not make you of lower quality" TESLA is the best there is.
Nice reference. Let's take a stab at scaling that to Teslas. I will use a rough number of Teslas on the road as 20,000 (Roadsters and Model S's). From Passenger vehicles in the United States - Wikipedia it looks like there are about 250 million automobiles in the U.S. If Teslas had fires at the same rate as all automobiles, then the average time between Tesla fires should be: 96 seconds x 250,000,000 / 20,000 = 1,200,000 seconds or 13.88 days It seems like we are having Tesla fires at a rate of less than 2 per month...That would mean that the rate of Tesla fires is less than the average automobile. Please remember that even though we can calculate average rates, they probably have a Poisson distribution, which has a lot of variance. As some would say, "Its not one fire every 14 days, its a 1/14 chance of a fire each day." Does this make sense?
To really do this right we would need to isolate the car fires which are caused by an impact and not mechanical failures. While it is an important point that Teslas lack the the belts and parts prone to fire, impacts resulting in fire are the scenario we should focus on. I might have to nerd out on some data if I can find the time...
You should probably also include the fact that there have been many incidents of a Model S being flooded (in particular, Miami incident where half-dozen Tesla Model S' were brought into SC due to freak flood) and none of which resulted in any fire. whereas when a fisker karma gets flooded, it shorts out and burns to the ground. http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/17699-Bad-experience-with-flood-waters http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/report-16-fisker-karmas-burn-following-hurricane-sandy-ar137485.html http://www.treehugger.com/cars/16-fisker-karma-cars-explode-and-burn-during-superstorm-sandy.html
Saw this gas guzzling Prius with the front burned to a crisp on the way home today. Did not appear to have contacted anything. Apparently this is not unheard of but I am curious if it is electrical.
I was stuck in traffic yesterday afternoon and saw a wall of billowing black flame ahead. An ICE was smoking and had its front on fire. Like a lot of fire. As I was driving cautiously past, something else in the front exploded and more fire spewed out the side. I felt like I was in a Michael Bay movie. It's funny how much attention Tesla gets for their so called car fires when in LA, you see an ICE on fire every other week if you're on the freeway enough.
To me, the thing to take away is how little cabin intrusion there is even in the worst collisions. I'm always amazed when I find Mercedes-Benzs in the junkyard, even the hardest collisions seem to leave a very pristine interior cabin and doors that still open. The Tesla looks like it's even another leap beyond that.