Second Tesla Fire, Shares drop.

[acdii]

http://news.yahoo.com/tesla-shares-fall-reports-second-205008218.html

[hybridbear]

I wonder how much the MSM will blow this out of proportion to attack Tesla.

Edited October 29, 2013 by hybridbear

[Ted Swing]

Car fires in gasoline cars are not really that unusual. My first car ('91 Pontiac Sunbird) caught fire and it wasn't even caused by an accident or anything.

 

I think the attention Tesla is getting for this is just due to a lot of people wanting them to fail.

[acdii]

The attention is because its an electric car. New fangled tech that no one understands(nevermind the fact the first cars ever made were electric).

[B25Nut]

There has been a third Tesla Model S fire, and Tesla has reported a $38 million loss for the third quarter.

 

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20131107/CARNEWS/131109863

[acdii]

I just read about that. So it appears if you get one of these, try not to hit anything on the road. Well, that pretty much goes for any car out there, hit a fuel line or tank and most certainly a fire can happen.

[fusionTX]

At this point, i think the fire issue is a bit worrisome. There aren't that many Tesla's out there. I think they plan to deliver a little over 20,000 this year.

[B25Nut]

At this point, i think the fire issue is a bit worrisome. There aren't that many Tesla's out there. I think they plan to deliver a little over 20,000 this year.

 

After the first two fires, I thought like Acdii. With this third one, it's more than "it can happen to all cars". More FFHs have been sold, and there hasn't been one fire. The Model S may be my dream car, but the FFH makes me happier. I saw a twin of mine heading north on Hwy 101 on my way to work this morning. Damn, it's a great looking car in White Platinum.

[timf]

There's no way to say with 100% confidence that there haven't been any FFH fires. Statistically speaking, there's sure to have been at least some. They just are unlikely to capture the attention that Tesla fires do because the Tesla is a much higher profile car. It's high-profile new technology that draws increased attention, with plenty of opponents out there from oil companies to dealer associations. Many want to see Tesla fail whether they want to admit it or not.

 

The fact is in all the fires that have occurred thus far, the car has provided enough protection for the occupant so they could safely exit the vehicle. Sure it's no fun to watch your $100k car burn up, but this is an insurance claim not a safety hazard. It's already been proven that the Model S is the safest car in crash tests. Perhaps if this continues to be an issue they can further reinforce the battery pack, but there's nothing that would keep me from buying a Model S if I could comfortably afford it.

[jsolan]

Keep those shares dropping until I can afford to buy some! I still feel the stock price is in a correction phase and these fires are just an easy excuse for investors to pull back after overvaluing the company.

 

This is getting blown way out of proportion because certain people want to see Tesla fail. For those that actually read the articles instead of just the headlines, I think they will see that Tesla is just proving it's safety features are 2nd to none.

 

The statistics have been hard to find and the ones I have found are even a bit hard to interpret, but let's take just a look anyway:

 

There are 20,000 on the road and have been 3 fires. Thats .015% of Tesla vehicles that have caught fire. Yes it's still early, so let's double that number to .03% to assume end of year numbers.

 

I haven't been able to find detailed stats for gasoline powered vehicles, but here are some stats that at least give something close for comparison. In 2009, there were 254,212,610 passenger vehicles registered for the road in the US according to wikipedia. According to the National Fire Protection Agency (http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/vehicles) there were on average 175,000 vehicle fires per year between 2006 and 2010. That's .068% of gas vehicles that have caught fire in 2009.

 

Granted those stats aren't entirely comparable because Tesla hasn't been out for very long and a lot of those gas powered fires could've been very old vehicles since the stats are for all vehicles on the road.. I'd love to find first year vehicle statistics to compare. If I do I will post them. I'm sure there's someone over at Tesla's marketing department working on these statistics much harder than I ever would.

[trvlrschick]

How many cars could crash into a concrete wall AND a tree at a high rate of speed, and the driver gets up and walks away? I'd say that says a LOT more about Teslas than a couple of fires that were all due to extreme circumstances.

[GrySql]

How many cars could crash into a concrete wall AND a tree at a high rate of speed

 

Must be fun to go fast - quietly.

[hybridbear]

Good article from Green Car Reports about Tesla fires

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1088281_tesla-fires-what-we-know-and-what-we-need-to-find-out

 

And, here's the Tesla Corp blog post from the owner of the vehicle involved in the most recent fire

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/model-s-owner-tennessee

[Ted Swing]

The takeaway from the first and third fires are that undercarriage punctures can cause battery fires. This is worth noting, but so far it's quite rare and hasn't harmed anyone so far - just the cars.

 

I would think Tesla would want to consider whether the steel plating below the batteries needs an upgrade and/or if the car should have greater height above the road. On the other hand, it's hard to see it as a safety issue when nobody has been hurt in any of these incidents yet...

[acdii]

Correct, its not like a superheated brake drum smashed through the window, starting the interior on fire and killing a bunch of kids. then again, that had nothing to do with the vehicle itself either, just one of those things that can happen on the highway to any vehicle. Just bad luck for Tesla being that 3 of their cars happen to have something like this happen.