Tesla on fire: not good.

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Discussion

FurtiveFreddy

8,577 posts

237 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Blaster72 said:
Amazing really considering how few are on the roads and how they're so much less likely to burn than a ICE car.
You've not driven around LA recently, have you? The place is full of them.

otolith

56,095 posts

204 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Max_Torque said:
Finally, Brake fluid is actually the no1 cause of ICE fires after accidents, as unlike petrol, which just flashes straight to vapour without igniting on contact with say a hot exhaust manifold, the lower vapour point and volatility of brake fluid results in a fluid fire in a large number of cases.
The only car fire I ever had was a Peugeot 309 GTI in which the manufacturer in their wisdom had run a hose carrying power steering fluid near the exhaust manifold.

Blaster72

10,838 posts

197 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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FurtiveFreddy said:
Blaster72 said:
Amazing really considering how few are on the roads and how they're so much less likely to burn than a ICE car.
You've not driven around LA recently, have you? The place is full of them.
Nope, haven't been to LA for 3 years. As a percentage of cars on the road worldwide they are a miniscule percentage though so I'll stick to my thoughts that very few are on the roads.

I do hear though people have to queue for hours at superchargers in LA though now as there are too many Tesla's wanting free juice.

It's really interesting to see how this develops and if the free supercharging will have to end at some point to limit demand.

FurtiveFreddy

8,577 posts

237 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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Blaster72 said:
I do hear though people have to queue for hours at superchargers in LA though now as there are too many Tesla's wanting free juice.

It's really interesting to see how this develops and if the free supercharging will have to end at some point to limit demand.
Sorry, but that's rubbish.

I visited superchargers twice in a few days when I was there a month ago. The first one had about 4 bays out of 12 occupied at 10am on a Saturday, the other was outside a shopping mall on a Sunday (prime shopping/recharging time) and although it had fewer free bays I drove straight into one and saw nobody having to queue the time I was there.

There were reports a couple of years back about queues at certain Superchargers but the whole process has settled down now and charging speeds and capacity are only going in one direction as more cars are delivered.

BTW, LA is teeming with Teslas and I didn't see any on fire when I was there tongue out

gangzoom

6,297 posts

215 months

Monday 18th June 2018
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FurtiveFreddy said:
Sorry, but that's rubbish.

I visited superchargers twice in a few days when I was there a month ago. The first one had about 4 bays out of 12 occupied at 10am on a Saturday, the other was outside a shopping mall on a Sunday (prime shopping/recharging time) and although it had fewer free bays I drove straight into one and saw nobody having to queue the time I was there.

There were reports a couple of years back about queues at certain Superchargers but the whole process has settled down now and charging speeds and capacity are only going in one direction as more cars are delivered.

BTW, LA is teeming with Teslas and I didn't see any on fire when I was there tongue out
Oh dear your been a bit naive, if you want people on the internet to pay any attention to anything you write a good news story or even just facts is going to get you no where.

This the kind of news that get clicks, note the great use of a quotation for added effect!!

Actress tweets video of husband's Tesla bursting into flames "out of the blue" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-electric-vehicl...

Blaster72

10,838 posts

197 months

Tuesday 19th June 2018
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Even the factory is catching fire now rofl

https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-email-employee...

getmecoat

Plug Life

978 posts

91 months

Tuesday 19th June 2018
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Seems like the entire company switches to Insane mode.

jjwilde

1,904 posts

96 months

Tuesday 19th June 2018
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Blaster72 said:
Nope, haven't been to LA for 3 years. As a percentage of cars on the road worldwide they are a miniscule percentage .
Two hundred thousand cars sold is a decent amount. How many of these 200,000 cars have gone on fire? I suspect a minuscule percentage...

Blaster72

10,838 posts

197 months

Tuesday 19th June 2018
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How does a chat about cars in LAX turn in you giving us Tesla sales figures?

How many by percentage of cars on the road are made by Tesla please and thankyou!

Blaster72

10,838 posts

197 months

Tuesday 19th June 2018
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To put a little perspective on sales, Nissan sold more Micras just in Europe in the last 4.5 years than Tesla sold since it formed worldwide across all of it's models.

The trouble with statistics is they can be manipulated to suit, Tesla defend their fires by saying they are statistically less likely to burn than ICE cars. The question is - which ICE cars are they comparing to? All, some, the ones that burn the most - who knows.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

254 months

Tuesday 19th June 2018
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Stats from nfpa and usdot.

41 fires out of 320K Teslas sold (rate of 0.013%)
174k fires out of 263mil other cars (rate of 0.066%)
Teslas are five times less likely to burn than ice cars.

Whenever you have a lot of easily accessible stored energy in a small relatively heavy thing built to a budget and that moves quickly you will get fires.

Tesla have already implemented improvements to prevent fires like a thick aluminum guard to prevent damage to the pack.

But like every other car on the road it's not perfect.

We almost lost 2 top gear presenters in a ice car fire whilst filming this year,..

Blaster72

10,838 posts

197 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
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RobDickinson said:
Stats from nfpa and usdot.

41 fires out of 320K Teslas sold (rate of 0.013%)
174k fires out of 263mil other cars (rate of 0.066%)
Teslas are five times less likely to burn than ice cars.
Taken in isolation those stats sound so good for Tesla. Dig a little deeper and you can see the manipulation involved to get to the five times less likely stat.

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

254 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
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Even if it was 5 times worse it'd still only match ice cars.

If it was 5 times worse we'd see articles far more often. Literally every Tesla fire is top story news. How can they hide that?

hairyben

8,516 posts

183 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
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Blaster72 said:
RobDickinson said:
Stats from nfpa and usdot.

41 fires out of 320K Teslas sold (rate of 0.013%)
174k fires out of 263mil other cars (rate of 0.066%)
Teslas are five times less likely to burn than ice cars.
Taken in isolation those stats sound so good for Tesla. Dig a little deeper and you can see the manipulation involved to get to the five times less likely stat.
Also don't forget battery cars can't go that far so need to represent adjusted for milage to be fair.

anonymous-user

54 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
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RobDickinson said:
Stats from nfpa and usdot.

41 fires out of 320K Teslas sold (rate of 0.013%)
174k fires out of 263mil other cars (rate of 0.066%)
Teslas are five times less likely to burn than ice cars.

Whenever you have a lot of easily accessible stored energy in a small relatively heavy thing built to a budget and that moves quickly you will get fires.

Tesla have already implemented improvements to prevent fires like a thick aluminum guard to prevent damage to the pack.

But like every other car on the road it's not perfect.

We almost lost 2 top gear presenters in a ice car fire whilst filming this year,..
Whilst I agree with your second paragraph I’m not sure your stats are that representative.

Where’s the 263M come from? Is that ICE in the USA or is it just the ICE cars built since the launch of the S, which might be more representative, though harder to calculate?

Given the average age of ICE cars in the USA is about 12 years, there are a lot of much older cars than Teslas can be and maintenance and age etc presumably play a part. Who knows what the stats would be in another 10 years or more?

But as said, stats can show whatever we wish them to.




Blaster72

10,838 posts

197 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
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Lovely of you to find all those links Rob but I feel you have entirely missed the point we are trying to make.

Again the stats - how many cars are on the road in the USA, how many do Tesla use for their calculation? ( I’ll give you a clue, the 263 mil includes trucks, vans, buses etc.. )

I’m driving a Model S for 5 days next month including a 1000 mile London to Scotland and back for The Open. If it catches alight I’ll be sure to take photos rofl

Edited by Blaster72 on Wednesday 20th June 09:02

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

254 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
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that wasnt teslas data that was official us data

untakenname

4,969 posts

192 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
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Tesla's are relatively new and serviced within the dealer network, what will happen when EV's become commonplace and people start taking them to independent garages to be modded for more power or start using non OEM battery packs or reconditioned ones as replacements?
I've seen a 5000mah battery go up in a radio controlled car and the fumes it generates are immense, what would happen if that happened to a full size in a underground car park?

Tbh I'm surprised that Eurostar and Ferry operaters allow EV's as their fire suppression systems are designed for ICE.

herewego

8,814 posts

213 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
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REALIST123 said:
Whilst I agree with your second paragraph I’m not sure your stats are that representative.

Where’s the 263M come from? Is that ICE in the USA or is it just the ICE cars built since the launch of the S, which might be more representative, though harder to calculate?

Given the average age of ICE cars in the USA is about 12 years, there are a lot of much older cars than Teslas can be and maintenance and age etc presumably play a part. Who knows what the stats would be in another 10 years or more?

But as said, stats can show whatever we wish them to.
I think the average life is about 13 years not the average age.