Video of a second Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) Model S fire appeared on YouTube last week, and the electric-vehicle maker's stock dipped a bit. Is this fire any more cause for concern to Tesla investors than the first? Analysts John Rosevear and Rex Moore answer that question in this segment of "Motor Money". (You can see the entire Motor Money show here.)
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Report this Comment On November 04, 2013, at 11:54 AM, ffbj wrote:
Having seen quite a few car fires over the years, as a courier, I can certainly attest that they are spectacular. Probably, as you say, it should not have much effect on the stock, which has recovered nicely recently. Still it seems to me there is something worth looking into deeply in these fires, and that is the possibility of additional engineering to reduce the intensity of the conflagration.
Sure, almost everyone understands that cars are in essence travelling bombs with safety features. Car filled with highly flammable materials where even a dropped cigarette butt on the fabric, at one time, could set them ablaze are going to burn baby burn all too often.
Well apparently hitting the undercarriage, where the batteries reside, at high speeds is a recipe for disaster.
Musk says there is a chemical pack within each battery pack which turns solid and prevents fires from spreading, and there are also firewalls protecting the cabin, howsoever in both videos there are exploding batteries. So bottom line is that there may be some additional steps that need to be taken that address these specific types of accidents. Possibly some sort of fire suppression within the battery pack itself. There has been no clear explanation, at least that I have found, as to why these events were so violent and uncontrollable. Although most everyone understands that even regular batteries can catch on fire and explode, in this particular case when there are so many, around 7 thousand in each car, it seems there should be another level of fire prevention.
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