This fire just cost Tesla $2.5 billion

Norm · Oct 3, 2013

This fire just cost Tesla $2.5 billion

A FIRE that destroyed a Tesla electric car near Seattle which began in the vehicle's battery pack has wiped $US2.5 billion off the company's value.

Norm

Speedfreakz · Oct 3, 2013

I question how much metal debris he hit but I guess something sharp could have come up into the battery pack. No impact shield?

N8N · Oct 3, 2013

Oddly I just saw my first Model S in the wild yesterday and another (the same one?) driving around this morning.

Chauncey Gardiner · Oct 3, 2013

I watched the story on a Seattle "news" station last night. The talking-head regurgitated Tesla's press release,,,,,,,,but added nothing.

~ Chance

Steve K · Oct 3, 2013

Call me paranoid, but when I saw the car sitting at an intersection and burning, my first thought was that maybe the car didn't hit debris, but may have impacted another car. In that case, though, I would think that Tesla has already performed the standard crash tests and addressed any potential fires that could result from crush damage to the battery.

I have heard some media outlets comment on how this follows Mr Musk offering to help Boeing design proper lithium battery packs that were properly tested and proven safe. Was Elon just tempting fate??

Changing focus a bit... I was a little surprised that the fire fighters were using water on burning metals. I thought there was a proper type D chemical extinguisher that was the correct stuff to use. Or maybe they used up all they had and had to revert to water?

LEDninja · Oct 3, 2013

The video and pictures from the link show the fire in the front of the car. The battery is much further back.
The story indicates the firefighters punched a hole in the battery pack and doused it with water. Was the battery on fire or the firefighters simply flooding the battery as a precaution? Firefighters do like to continue spraying water after a fire has been put out to prevent hot spots from flaring up again.

Tesla made a small profit a few months ago with nobody expecting it. The stock price went nuts. I think the fire made people realize its not just ra-ra-ra all the time.
The Tesla model S is number one in luxury car sales in California and number one in all car sales in Norway. Despite that I do not think Tesla can make enough cars in the next year nor Panasonic enough 18650 to justify the high stock price.

ThirstyTurtle · Oct 3, 2013

LEDninja said:
The video and pictures from the link show the fire in the front of the car. The battery is much further back.
The story indicates the firefighters punched a hole in the battery pack and doused it with water. Was the battery on fire or the firefighters simply flooding the battery as a precaution? Firefighters do like to continue spraying water after a fire has been put out to prevent hot spots from flaring up again.

Tesla made a small profit a few months ago with nobody expecting it. The stock price went nuts. I think the fire made people realize its not just ra-ra-ra all the time.
The Tesla model S is number one in luxury car sales in California and number one in all car sales in Norway. Despite that I do not think Tesla can make enough cars in the next year nor Panasonic enough 18650 to justify the high stock price.

The ENTIRE bottom of the Model S is a slab of battery. The Roadster's pack is in the back (between seats and rear wheels).

The fire (in my opinion) shouldn't affect anyone's safety opinion of the vehicle. It's not like it spontaneously caught on fire; I'm sure there are plenty of impact-related scenarios that could result in a ICE catching fire as well. Just a fluke thing and luckily no one was hurt.

Having two Teslas in my family I am biased but I strongly contend that the Tesla Model S is THE BEST vehicle made in America.

Norm · Oct 3, 2013

Surprisingly or maybe not surprisingly the public doesn't even consider fuel fires in normal ICE vehicles to be a problem.

Norm

Imon · Oct 3, 2013

Man, I had a 17670 catch fire once and I thought that was scary.

Dumped some sand on it and it was over but this ... wow.

LEDninja · Oct 4, 2013

Model S Fire
By Elon Musk
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/model-s-fire

A very detailed description of what happened.
Too long to copy into this post so go read it.

N8N · Oct 4, 2013

LEDninja said:
Model S Fire
By Elon Musk
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/model-s-fire

A very detailed description of what happened.
Too long to copy into this post so go read it.

I don't know that I'd agree with the last sentence, but it does sound like this is pretty much a rare event and mostly correctly handled by the firefighters, and most importantly, the driver was uninjured.

Sub_Umbra · Oct 5, 2013

Norm said:
Surprisingly or maybe not surprisingly the public doesn't even consider fuel fires in normal ICE vehicles to be a problem.

Norm

Yup. I've noticed the same thing. IIRC close to 50% of all Fire Department responses are for automotive fires. Anything as big as a car is going to have quite a bit of energy (actually exergy) bottled up to move it. Gas, steam, electricity -- doesn't make much difference which. I think people are just used to ICE cars burning and have just written it off as the cost of doing business.

I think there was a scene in The Carpetbaggers (1964) where the protagonist, Jonas Cord (loosly based on Howard hughes) strikes a car he's designing with an ax and steam jets out. He stops the project and issues orders that the car be discretely disassembled and buried. He comments that the first accident where someone is burned with steam would be a pr disaster.

gadget_lover · Oct 6, 2013

I commuted for many years. It's amazing how many car fires I've seen, or at least the burned out hulks. Amazingly, they appear to sometimes catch fire without being in an accident.

I don't find an occasional fire caused by a road hazard to be that big a deal.

Daniel

Esko · Oct 6, 2013

"187,500 "highway vehicle fires" in the US in 2011"

Source (and an article about Tesla and the most current fire):
http://green.autoblog.com/2013/10/02/tesla-model-s-fire/

I wonder if this was only the second Tesla fire this year? It would be 0,001% of all fires and 100% of international news headlines concerning them.

Not long ago, I also read an interesting piece of news concerning Tesla. Last month, Tesla S was the best selling car in Norway with 5% share of the sales, followed by a lot cheaper VW Golf and Toyota Auris. Nissan Leaf (another electric car) was also in top 10.

Flying Turtle · Oct 6, 2013

Got passed by the first Tesla I've seen around here the other day. Took me a bit to figure out what it was. Caught up at a stoplight and read the name. Actually I first thought someone had changed the badges on a Kia Optima or Cadenza. It looks sweet in red.

Geoff

STiFTW · Oct 6, 2013

Time to buy stock!

Chauncey Gardiner · Oct 6, 2013

STiFTW said:
Time to buy stock!

I really shouldn't,,,,,oh what the heck......fire sale!

~ Chance

raggie33 · Oct 6, 2013

i still think electric cars are the future. used to be a guy on this forum who had a electric car. i belive he was even in the movie called who killed the electric care. i forget his name but it may of been dale

idleprocess · Oct 6, 2013

Norm said:
Surprisingly or maybe not surprisingly the public doesn't even consider fuel fires in normal ICE vehicles to be a problem.

Nope. Nor the significantly greater amount of energy in the average car's gas tank at any given time. Car fires are a significant percentage of fire department calls and we think nothing of them.

Tesla, on the other hand, like Apple, gets media attention with everything that happens to it - good or bad. Price they pay for pushing something new, I suppose.

JollyRoger · Oct 6, 2013

Are you talking about Darell?

This fire just cost Tesla $2.5 billion

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