String of Model S Fires Bring Call for Tesla Safety Probe

Edmunds.com

String of Model S Fires Bring Call for Tesla Safety Probe

Recent Tesla Model S fires have hurt the company's image and spurred calls for a federal safety investigation.

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oldparnell

In all fairness to Tesla, a tow hitch is a pretty sizable chunk of steel. I can only imagine what kind of damage it would do to a fuel tank if struck.

pommah

In my area just yesterday some dude swerved his SUV to avoid a couch that fell off a pickup, rolled, his car blew up, he got burned to a crisp.

At least two of the three Tesla fires were from F.O.D. - foreign object damage. Note that unlike my SUV example, the drivers were able to get out on time, with no injuries whatsoever.

All evidence points to the Tesla being one of the safest cars on the road, yet here we have a total prick like Ditlow getting press over its safety record. Can't any journalists think? Or read about the man and all his self-aggrandizing behavior and not bother to quote this bloviating leech on society?

Tesla stock was pumped up so high, any "negative" news, like Elon Musk catching a cold, was bound to precipitate some kind of stock drop.

jeffinoh

While I sympathize with the potential for Tesla to be damaged by overreaction to fires, there's more to this problem. The auto media is crunching the numbers wrong in an attempt to protect Tesla. The article stated that one in 6330 Teslas has caught fire thus far. That's a lot. And it doesn't compare number of crashes to number of fires in Tesla models only, which is the proper way to judge this issue. What's that number? Also the reference to the Fiskers is incorrect. During Hurricane Sandy a stock of Fiskers got immersed in salt water causing the batteries to catch fire. Teslas batteries are catching fire when the damage is exposing certain chemicals to air. This needs to be addressed- not swept under the rug.