Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Tesla adds Titanium Underbody Shield to Model S

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Personally, I have always appreciated the design and safety factors inherent in the current vehicle. I, for one, have total confidence in what I currently have and I have no intentions of requesting that this (in my opinion) superfluous shield be added to my car.
 
Galvanic charting:

Aluminum (various) = in the teens

Titanium = in the 80s

Silver = 89
Gold = 90

So roughly the same ballpark as if the safety shield was made of Ag or Au.

Now we can detail our Ti bottoms: "get down on the pavement, can you see that unique color and patina? It's TITANIUM!!"
--
 
Personally, I have always appreciated the design and safety factors inherent in the current vehicle. I, for one, have total confidence in what I currently have and I have no intentions of requesting that this (in my opinion) superfluous shield be added to my car.
Chipper, I don't know. You live in Tennessee, which seems to be ground zero for EV accidents. :smile:

(Model S takes out power pole, Model S fire)
 
Surely, there's some SpaceX input here. Wonder if the Model S can now survive reentry :)

Called the Burlingame service center who are just getting up to speed on this. They are going to call me back soon.

+1. I would suspect that Tesla had access to the engineering resources at SpaceX on this. Nice to have real rocket engineers and scientists at your disposal to work on issues like this!
 
Chipper, I don't know. You live in Tennessee, which seems to be ground zero for EV accidents. :smile:

(Model S takes out power pole, Model S fire)

though not highlighted today by Tesla, this also helps with concerns realistic or not a few people have raised about the Model X and off road driving. it also possibly averts a problem with the deliveries starting up in China any day now. I've not been to China, they may have thoroughly gotten their roads up to the quality of those I'm familiar with in the U.S., but having travelled quite a bit in India, and experiencing some challenging road conditions, I was somewhat concerned that we might see fire stories from China, which could play on emotions of consumers anywhere.
 
Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S

Heard back from Burlingame. Everyone's getting on a conference call with Elon later today apparently. It's going to be a couple-to-few weeks out before the service centers are equipped to install the shield, it seems. Even the Fremont service center may not have the necessary parts or training in short order. It's only on the factory line as of now. But, I was asked to check in in a couple of weeks.
 
Did anyone else see the screw falling out of the plate underneath the Tesla in the first video?
Indeed. That screw, one of several, holds the plastic aerodynamic cover. The miniature tsunami that rippled across the plastic shielding popped it right out.

image.jpg


While the intent of the new mod is to protect the battery. It would still be a bad day. The battery chiller mounted just forward on the suspension subframe and other sensitive bits under that plastic aerodam are vulnerable. The Tesla post mentions that the first of 3 shields "a rounded aluminium bar that is designed to either defect objects ... or force it [debris object] to pike upwards well forward of the battery pack."
 
Galvanic charting:

Aluminum (various) = in the teens

Titanium = in the 80s

Silver = 89
Gold = 90

So roughly the same ballpark as if the safety shield was made of Ag or Au.

Now we can detail our Ti bottoms: "get down on the pavement, can you see that unique color and patina? It's TITANIUM!!"
--

Titanium is cathodic to aluminum. Hopefully they will provide insulation between this new plate and the aluminum armor or we will certainly see corrosion of the aluminum.
 
+1. I would suspect that Tesla had access to the engineering resources at SpaceX on this. Nice to have real rocket engineers and scientists at your disposal to work on issues like this!

"Hey, you guys that designed the boron-steel inserts and specified the spacecraft-grade bolts to reinforce the roof such that it broke the NHTSA's crush-testing machine... you have some time to come over and talk about battery-pack shielding?"