Youtuber Ratarossa buys a Tesla Model S for £7000

[WannabeOwner]

most of my friends have been surprised ( if not shocked ) with my super positive experience - after of course they stopped laughing at me for buying a tesla

Back in 2015 when I got an MS, and that was a rare thing, my mates thought I was mental to spend that amount on a car (I've aimed to be eco for a long time; back then I had had a number of VW BlueMotion in a row ... look how that turned out for Eco ... and in a fit of peak I looked around, didn't know Tesla existed before then nor that EV could do 200+ miles, so VW did me a favour ... whilst paying up billions in USA and claimed "no case to answer" in EU of course ...). Anyway, I assumed I need to pay the extra ponies for the extra performance ponies ... so 4x price of a VW BlueMotion.

So ... they all wanted a ride. Set off, 5-up, to nearby main road. Stop, "This thing weights over 2 tonnes you know" ... then did the count-down "5..4...3" and launched ... "2...1... that's 60"

I may have been Eco, but they were a nice share of envy-green

Going to have to count-down to 2, rather than 3, if&when I get a Plaid and take them for a demo ...

They may not be as prevalent as ICE fires, though there are not many old EV's and the ICE fires may be more in old cars so that may not be a fair statistic.

I wonder if there are figures (and newspaper reports) in Norway? high percentage of EV there, so they are likely to have had all the gamut of experiences - good and bad

it appears those that catch fire are units that have been left parked for a time. Seems like battery management system that has no energy to manage because the battery is depleted. ?

The ones I have read about have been a short-circuit, which has developed over time, and then got to the point where the current leakage is sufficient to start a runaway reaction. All? GM Bolts were recalled for that reason (fault in construction / assembly of the batteries for the whole fleet - Ouch! Other brands, using same battery supplier, had same recall issue)

 

[MovingSouth]

It seems someone is keeping track of Tesla's fires: Tesla Fire: Digital record of Tesla fire incidents

And reporting them in an unbiased manner ... ? Looking at one report at random, it is described as 'House burns down from Tesla spontaneous fire', but the link shows that a coastal fire spread through the area, burning down houses and, in the process, the Tesla.

 

[Avendit]

And reporting them in an unbiased manner ... ? Looking at one report at random, it is described as 'House burns down from Tesla spontaneous fire', but the link shows that a coastal fire spread through the area, burning down houses and, in the process, the Tesla.

Barrel. Scraping. Bottom of.

Re-arrange as required.

 

[Terry Clarke]

I actually think there is a legitimate concern over fires. They may not be as prevalent as ICE fires, though there are not many old EV's and the ICE fires may be more in old cars so that may not be a fair statistic. The difference is when an EV catches fire you can't put it out.
One day an EV is going to catch fire in a multi storey car park or an underground car park in London or a cross channel Ferry and it is going to cause major damage or even loss of life and the press are going to have a total field day with it and then as a knee jerk reaction people will start banning EV's from similar places and they will love that as well. Even if the fire actually starts in the ICE car next to the EV or its arson the EV will get the blame and the damage will be done.

A Zafira took out an entire multi-story in Cork, Ireland a few years ago. When it happens the bill will be big.

Owners of Cork shopping centre sue for €30m after car causes fire

Douglas Village Shopping Centre has been closed since the fire of August 31st, 2019

www.irishtimes.com

We're in Belgrade at the moment and a Model X lit up 2 weeks ago in the very same parking area where we park.

Given where the damage is, it looks more like a front motor fire than a battery pack fire?

 

[Avendit]

A Zafira took out an entire multi-story in Cork, Ireland a few years ago. When it happens the bill will be big.

Owners of Cork shopping centre sue for €30m after car causes fire

Douglas Village Shopping Centre has been closed since the fire of August 31st, 2019

www.irishtimes.com

We're in Belgrade at the moment and a Model X lit up 2 weeks in the very same parking area where we park.

View attachment 963443

Given where the damage is, it looks more like a front motor fire than a battery pack fire?

Or something in the frunk?

 

[Konicom04]

A Zafira took out an entire multi-story in Cork, Ireland a few years ago. When it happens the bill will be big.

Owners of Cork shopping centre sue for €30m after car causes fire

Douglas Village Shopping Centre has been closed since the fire of August 31st, 2019

www.irishtimes.com

So this wasn't EV related fire.
BTW - both of my E46 BMW's lost to the fire were caused by a known HVAC issue that BMW always denied - similarly to this Zafira.

What's wrong with Germans?

 

[Konicom04]

Or something in the frunk?

more importantly, it does not look like the battery caught on fire.

 

[Konicom04]

Or something in the frunk?

I had my drone packed in the frunk on my way to Florida back in May,
At one of the supercharging stops, when i noticed how hot the frunk got, i moved it to the inside thinking those drone batteries are bound to lit up at some point

 

[Leejmoff]

I only ever see EV bashing in the press. Everyone I know seems OK with them or at worst indifferent.
You need different friends.

seems to be more US media bashing EV market than anything else. People I talk to are mostly curious and want to know all about it.

 

[Medved_77]

One of them ingested the swirl flaps I to the cylinders, and the mechanic told me many BMWs also do that

I removed the swirl flaps on my E61 530D and replaced with blanking plates as I was really worried about this happening. Appeared quite a common occurrence on the BMW forums.

 

[Mrklaw]

I removed the swirl flaps on my E61 530D and replaced with blanking plates as I was really worried about this happening. Appeared quite a common occurrence on the BMW forums.

I never had diesels - never liked the sounds of the engines and just preferred petrol engines. But for the many years I had BMWs all the forums were full of scare stories around swirl flaps and diesels going pop

 

[Zilla91]

Both the BMWs I owned had the masterpiece that was the B58 6 cylinder petrol engine.

 

[Mrklaw]

Both the BMWs I owned had the masterpiece that was the B58 6 cylinder petrol engine.

forgive me father for I have sinned. My last BMW was a 4 cylinder base engine. I decided to spend my budget on msport kit and pretty things rather than an engine I had realised was never going to be properly used on roads these days (bah humbug) and wouldn't be as fuel efficient (prices were rocketing at the time).

everything else had been glorious 6-cyls until then.

 

[Zilla91]

The 6 cylinder was surprisingly frugal, could get above 30 mpg without even trying too hard (M140i + X3 M40i). The newer ones with the mild hybrid tech are supposedly even more frugal

 

[garycat]

Not sure how this thread got on to EV fires, but this "fire blanket" solution looks like it works, and can be used on ferries, transporters, in multi-story car parks etc

 

[Jason71]

A Zafira took out an entire multi-story in Cork, Ireland a few years ago. When it happens the bill will be big.

Owners of Cork shopping centre sue for €30m after car causes fire

Douglas Village Shopping Centre has been closed since the fire of August 31st, 2019

www.irishtimes.com

We're in Belgrade at the moment and a Model X lit up 2 weeks ago in the very same parking area where we park.

View attachment 963443

Given where the damage is, it looks more like a front motor fire than a battery pack fire?

There was a case in Wham bam Tesla cam a few weeks ago. Car caught on fire while parked . police were like "meh EV's what you gonna do" until the owner managed to retrieve the sentry footage which had survived and turned out some rando had walked up to the car. poured petrol over the front and set it on fire!

 

[Konicom04]

Not sure how this thread got on to EV fires, but this "fire blanket" solution looks like it works, and can be used on ferries, transporters, in multi-story car parks etc

This looks pretty clever, and far cleaner that "classic" extinguishing with media