palmer_md
Member
I saw the same thing a few minutes ago. Probably just site maintenance, but one can hope they are publishing another blog post about the fire issue.
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Ugh. Another Model S fire - 2013-11-06
- Thread starter tommolog
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- Driving Dynamics fire Model S
Thanks for the wiki link and the info. Quite surprised to hear 800 Americans died from collisions with road debris in 2011. Definitely gives perspective to this recent fire.
Hannes
Member
jeff, I am cetainly not good at analytics and math, but I think a couple of errors are made here. First I don't think that risk of fire per car is relevant. the relevant factor is the risk of fire per driven miles; the reason is that cars that are standing still, unused, generally speaking do not catch fire (aside from a very few exceptions which I expect can be neglected from a statistics point of view). Secondly, the comparison that is made here is a comparison between the data about risk of fire with ICE cars in general with the data on fires occured to a specific car (Tesla S). How often did a Mercedes C or E Class or an Audi 7 catch fire in a year? How likely is it that these cars - in the same kind of crash as the Tesla was in - would have caught fire? To me 3 fires to a model which is only on the road for less then 12 months and of which (I assume) less then 20000 are driving around, is significantly enough for Tesla to review whether the design may need to be improved.
On the other hand, let's not forget that in the few crashes that have been reported the passengers / driver got out of the car with at most minor injuries, and one can question whether with some of these crashes the result would have been the same in the above ICE cars. Another point to note is that althoough the fires did make the Tesla's most likely a total loss, the passengers, drivers were never in danger and had sufficient time to get out of the car. The design of the battery does localize any fire of the battery.
On the other hand, let's not forget that in the few crashes that have been reported the passengers / driver got out of the car with at most minor injuries, and one can question whether with some of these crashes the result would have been the same in the above ICE cars. Another point to note is that althoough the fires did make the Tesla's most likely a total loss, the passengers, drivers were never in danger and had sufficient time to get out of the car. The design of the battery does localize any fire of the battery.
Big changes on the Norwegian site at least. New options like red brake calipers, fog lights, interior differences, etc. Also a significant price bump - some say their configuration has increased by over $15k. Most of the price bump seems to be related to the options, the base prices are fairly unchanged. (My prefered configuration seems to have increased in price by about $3k.)
Mario Kadastik
Active Member
EU site now has the performance model as three month priority delivery. THAT was not there before, was the same 5-6 months I know as I looked ca 2 days ago for that exactly. Ah, not only that, the whole EU design page has mirrored US now with everything available as options instead of performance coming by default with tons of options included.
Edit: configured my car to the same as much as I could figure out and came up with a 50 eur cheaper price
No clue if Yacht floor is included in prior order or not so that remains the unknown. However I could now configure the car more like I'd want and end up with a slightly cheaper car while keeping all that I had originally wanted. Not by much, but still... But I think that's going far off topic now from the fire thread
Edit: configured my car to the same as much as I could figure out and came up with a 50 eur cheaper price
No clue if Yacht floor is included in prior order or not so that remains the unknown. However I could now configure the car more like I'd want and end up with a slightly cheaper car while keeping all that I had originally wanted. Not by much, but still... But I think that's going far off topic now from the fire thread 
Hello Folks,
i just wanted to say my trust in elon musk and tesla is unchanged even after the 3rd fire incident. If he can make rockets, then he can also fix this issue. In the end, Tesla will come out even stronger from this situation. Im expecting a bounce back in tesla stock today. I feel it in my stomach
i just wanted to say my trust in elon musk and tesla is unchanged even after the 3rd fire incident. If he can make rockets, then he can also fix this issue. In the end, Tesla will come out even stronger from this situation. Im expecting a bounce back in tesla stock today. I feel it in my stomach
Hello Folks,
i just wanted to say my trust in elon musk and tesla is unchanged even after the 3rd fire incident. If he can make rockets, then he can also fix this issue. In the end, Tesla will come out even stronger from this situation. Im expecting a bounce back in tesla stock today. I feel it in my stomach
+1, Elon is going to come to the rescue here, some good news will be coming...
Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
Hello Folks,
i just wanted to say my trust in elon musk and tesla is unchanged even after the 3rd fire incident. If he can make rockets, then he can also fix this issue. In the end, Tesla will come out even stronger from this situation. Im expecting a bounce back in tesla stock today. I feel it in my stomach
+1. This is nice. :smile:
Dborn
Confirmed
Aluminium is inherently more flammable than steel
The armor plate for the pack is, I understand, quarter inch aluminium. Anyone remember the British warship Sheffield during the Falklands war? Hit by a missile and sustained extreme damage beyond expectations because superstructure was aluminium.
I don't know about fire resistance of Kevlar, but a sheet of this is inherently stronger than aluminium and also light weight. Probably more expensive though. If the resin to make it is flammable then retardants can probably be added.
The armor plate for the pack is, I understand, quarter inch aluminium. Anyone remember the British warship Sheffield during the Falklands war? Hit by a missile and sustained extreme damage beyond expectations because superstructure was aluminium.
I don't know about fire resistance of Kevlar, but a sheet of this is inherently stronger than aluminium and also light weight. Probably more expensive though. If the resin to make it is flammable then retardants can probably be added.
Yes, MS has fewer fires than ICE cars statistically up to now, but MS now has far MORE fires than Leaf and Volt. Obviously because the MS battery pack is a much larger and exposed target, with lower ground clearance compared to those vehicles.
This is not acceptable for the "best car in the world."
Seems to me the short term solution is a software update to make the low setting higher (maybe 1 -1.5" higher than it is now) while they work on a better armor system and/or deflector to protect against and/or mitigate the damage from road debris.
In a nutshell, "damage control".
Hopefully Tesla is hard at work on something like this and we'll hear about it very soon. Short term big problem for Tesla, but in the long term I think it will be a blip (just like the early Volt fire problem was for GM.)
This is not acceptable for the "best car in the world."
Seems to me the short term solution is a software update to make the low setting higher (maybe 1 -1.5" higher than it is now) while they work on a better armor system and/or deflector to protect against and/or mitigate the damage from road debris.
In a nutshell, "damage control".
Hopefully Tesla is hard at work on something like this and we'll hear about it very soon. Short term big problem for Tesla, but in the long term I think it will be a blip (just like the early Volt fire problem was for GM.)
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Raffy.Roma
Rome (Italy)
@Alpha
I also think that Tesla is working on an upgrade for the pattery pack to improve the safety. If such an upgrade will come out will it be installed only on new Model S or it will be retrofit also on all existing Model S?
I also think that Tesla is working on an upgrade for the pattery pack to improve the safety. If such an upgrade will come out will it be installed only on new Model S or it will be retrofit also on all existing Model S?
I don't think Tesla can afford to replace all battery packs on all existing MS's -- too costly, unless they can cheaply retrofit the existing pack itself.
Seems like some form of additional layered protection and/or raising up suspension a little bit would do the trick.
It's still an amazing testament to the safety of the existing design that the fire started very slowly and that nobody was hurt. Just needs to be even better!
That's a pretty severe overreaction. Tesla has 19,000 cars on the road and only 3 have caught on fire, despite numerous other Model S accidents. The first two were from fairly serious accidents (one involving a 25-ton puncture force and the other from jumping on a rail) and we don't have further details yet on this third one. It's not like they're randomly catching fire sitting in traffic or in people's garages. Plus, all of the passengers in all of the Tesla fires have escaped unharmed. Being "the best car in the world" doesn't mean being bulletproof, it just means being better than the competition, and right now that equates to having a 1 in 6,000+ chance that your Tesla will catch on fire in the event of a severe accident, with a 100% survivability rate. Those are pretty good odds! In addition, as Musk has pointed out, the fires have all been contained to the forward area, which is a bit different from your traditional ICE car fire.
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