No Model 3 fires to date

[S4WRXTTCS]

My nephew (who is an ICE mechanic) joked "make sure you have a fire extinguisher in your new ride". So I started poking around the web. As of this posting, not ONE case of a M3 catching fire, anywhere.
I'm seeing M3's everywhere now, so that is truly remarkable. There is another thread that mentions a "goo" they've used in between the separate cells. I'm not sure if that's the reason. But this should absolutely be crowed about and discussed when people get snarky..

I don't have one, but I do believe regardless of the car its a good idea to have one.

You never know what's going to occur on the road.

Now it wouldn't do any good with a Tesla because the fires tend to be stubborn. At least they have the courtesy to ask you to exit the vehicle before the fire really goes at it. At least this was the case with most of the Model S fires.

 

[SageBrush]

As far as I can tell there have been zero Tesla Model 3 fires, even after serious crashes. Has anyone heard of a fire in the Model 3? If not, this seems to me a fairly large improvement over S and X given that Tesla has already delivered close to 120K Model 3s.

The ICE fire stats are about 0.57 per thousand*year. I don't know how new ICE cars compare to the average

While true that there have been 120k Model 3 deliveries, the average car age is I'd guess around 2 -3 months so 20k - 30k vehicle*years of experience. So while it is certainly encouraging news to read of perhaps only one Model 3 fire it is too early to crown the Model 3 as a fire safety champ.

 

[JeffK]

I don't know how new ICE cars compare to the average

Depends:
BMW hit by $10 million fine in South Korea over engine fires crisis - CNN

 

[DrDabbles]

Especially with the completely incompetent quality control that was occurring.

The QC issues were with general assembly. The battery packs were assembled elsewhere and shipped to California for mating with the vehicle. As far as the service bulletins go, there has only been one "major" issue with the packs. The issue is that some of the cells weren't welded to their bonding wire properly, so the pack had less energy available. Not much risk in that error, but still should have been caught.

Depends:
BMW hit by $10 million fine in South Korea over engine fires crisis - CNN

Don't forget Ford's ecoboost engines splitting and causing fires.

 

[SageBrush]

The issue is that some of the cells weren't welded to their bonding wire properly, so the pack had less energy available. Not much risk in that error, but still should have been caught.

Interesting. Can you point to more information ?

 

[TM Parts]

The Model 3 pack looks pretty great. I just got a car in that hit a pole and somehow scraped the entire bottom of the battery. It damaged some cells and they burst but the car didn't burn.

Imgur

 

[MP3Mike]

The Model 3 pack looks pretty great. I just got a car in that hit a pole and somehow scraped the entire bottom of the battery. It damaged some cells and they burst but the car didn't burn.

Imgur

I'll be interested to see more of this tear down. Are you going to open the battery up?

 

[TM Parts]

I'll be interested to see more of this tear down. Are you going to open the battery up?

Yep, Monday most likely.

 

[DrDabbles]

Interesting. Can you point to more information ?

Yep. Link to PDF of the NTSB filing for the Tesla TSB here.

 

[Beckler]

There must have been Model 3 fires by now - there's no way at least a few employees on that product aren't doing a good job.

 

[JeffK]

There must have been Model 3 fires by now - there's no way at least a few employees on that product aren't doing a good job.

I'm assuming it was tested like they did with the powerpack

Tesla set fire to a Powerpack to test its safety features – the results are impressive

...but I guess this test was done by the National Fire Protection Association

We can clearly see that Tesla tried to mitigate the fire risk in the Model 3 battery design.

 

[SageBrush]

Yep. Link to PDF of the NTSB filing for the Tesla TSB here.

Is this TSB saying that ALL Model 3 produced in the time frame mentioned are eligible for a battery replacement ?

 

[Swampgator]

Is this TSB saying that ALL Model 3 produced in the time frame mentioned are eligible for a battery replacement ?

I would think only IF they show reduced driving range. If a 100% charge =310 miles +- a reasonable percentage then no, you would not get a replacement. And why would you want one?

 

[SageBrush]

I would think only IF they show reduced driving range. If a 100% charge =310 miles +- a reasonable percentage then no, you would not get a replacement. And why would you want one?

My car is in the VIN group and came with a reduced range of about 1-2%. For me, not enough of a difference to request replacement even if offered unless battery aging is affected. For now I think I'll just keep on eye on the battery range outside of winter.

 

[Swampgator]

My car is in the VIN group and came with a reduced range of about 1-2%. For me, not enough of a difference to request replacement even if offered unless battery aging is affected. For now I think I'll just keep on eye on the battery range outside of winter.

I know we are getting of topic, but I would at least ask them to check it out given a 2% range loss.
My Sept 2018 build has been perfect in that regard.

 

[M0DEL³]

Have not yet heard of an entire Model 3 lost to a conflagration yet, but there are reports of limited battery fires generally after accidents.

Reddit

 

[Swampgator]

Have not yet heard of an entire Model 3 lost to a conflagration yet, but there are reports of limited battery fires generally after accidents.

Reddit

Please see post #26 above. That pack did not catch on fire. And that looked like pretty good hit the car took.

 

[HighandDry]

As they say,
“A battery-powered vehicle having a fire incident is newsworthy. A gasoline-powered vehicle having a fire is newsworthy only if it stops traffic.”

Are electric cars more likely to catch fire?

 

[SageBrush]

As they say,
“A battery-powered vehicle having a fire incident is newsworthy. A gasoline-powered vehicle having a fire is newsworthy only if it stops traffic.”

Are electric cars more likely to catch fire?

I'd change that to A gasoline-powered vehicle having a fire is newsworthy only if people die.

 

[Stirfelt]

Do not forget when hit from behind, the resulting gasoline fires "killed" the Ford Pinto,