[ChiragM]

A Tesla Model S burst into flames in a parking garage. A media report suggests that the incident happened in Shanghai, China.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Qhr_LLoJ0

That location is a funny one, as Tesla is gearing up to start making its own cars outside the city, with Gigafactory 3 under construction at the moment.

Tesla’s official response on Weibo reads:

After learning about the incident in Shanghai, we dispatched a team to the scene last night as soon as possible. We are actively liaising with the relevant departments and cooperating with the verification of the situation. According to the current information, there we no casualties.

“We immediately sent a team onsite and we’re supporting local authorities to establish the facts. From what we know now, no one was harmed,” Tesla said in a statement on Monday.

Source: Jalopnik

[VaidhiR]

Is it just me or does the smoke seem to originate around the front fender and tirewall region?!?

[sgiitk]

How did it happen? This is the million dollar question.

I do not see any earthly reason.

[1100D]

Can't imagine something like this happening (so quickly) while the vehicle is on the move.

[ashwin1224]

At the risk of sounding like a Tesla fanboy(Which I am not), IMO this incident seems sketchy as hell. An EV should not explode like this at all. There must be a million safe guards built in to prevent things like this from happening. I know Lithium batteries, when over charged, explode in a similar fashion i.e. smoke and then a violent explosion. But even cheap 3.3v cells come with pretty robust protective circuits to prevent explosion, and I doubt there's anything about a Tesla that can termed "cheap"


Adding to the soup, China's EV market is tremendously competitive. And Chinese players aren't exactly known for their ethical tactics and honest sportmanship. Like Indian public, even Chinese public is susceptible to manipulation. And I am sure a lot of people will cancel their Tesla bookings and go for a different EV(probably Chinese) after seeing this video.

[ecenandu]

1. How well the car was maintained?
2. Was there any damage to the underbody of the car?

Before blaming Tesla, we need to know a little more details.

[maddy42]

Originally Posted by ecenandu

1. How well the car was maintained?
2. Was there any damage to the underbody of the car?

Before blaming Tesla, we need to know a little more details.

Car was a 2015 model afaik and was in a garage and i read that two floors of the garage has been destroyed. Unless proper fire inspectors can decide how this started or if tesla has some of the cars data in their cloud, we may not be able to get any information here.

Tesla on their part is not very forthcoming with news involving their cars but also the reporting these days are very click baity where tesla gets trashed easily too. The truth hopefully should come out soon.

Doesnt bode well for a company investing billions in getting a chinese factory up within the year for Model 3 and Model Y.

Maddy

[HKap]

There's been quite a few Tesla's catching fire but most of them have been after an accident. That also raises a few concerns.

1) Tesla's are ranked as some of the safest cars out there in crash tests. However, if there is a high probability of the car bursting into flames after a crash, should it still continue to get that rating?

2) Battery fires are very hard to put out and need way more water than a "regular" fire. This is something I read about after a Tesla caught fire in LA.

3) Safety is paramount when deciding which car to buy, how would this affect your decision? Would you still buy a Tesla over ICE car knowing that these tend to catch fire quite regularly (for whatever reason)?

[volkman10]

Tesla is updating its battery software following a car fire, claims improve longevity.

Several Tesla Model S vehicles have caught on fire seemingly on their own without any accident lately and now Tesla is updating its battery software following the latest incident

-Last month, a Tesla Model S caught on fire while being investigated as the cause of another fire near Pittsburgh.

-A few days later, another Tesla Model S was caught on video bursting into flames seemingly on its own when parked in Shanghai.

-Media in Hong Kong reported another Tesla fire earlier this week and Tesla said that it was investigating the situation.


While there have been several instances of fires involving Tesla vehicles lately, the vehicles were all Model S or Model X. No Model 3 fire has been reported to date.


Link

[volkman10]

Tesla gives updates on cause of a battery fire, says single module is responsible.

Tesla added that preliminary findings show the source of the fire as a single battery module at the front of the vehicle.
However, they didn’t explain what in the battery module, which Tesla makes itself, could have caused it to ignite.

The automaker reiterated that it believes its vehicles are 10 times less likely to catch on fire than gasoline vehicles.

Link

[volkman10]

Tesla electric car catches fire after hitting a tow truck in Moscow.

Tesla fires are back in the news today due to a Model S exploding after a crash with a tow truck in Moscow.

The vehicle was reportedly on Autopilot at the time of the accident.

Russian businessman Alexey Tretyakov was driving his Model S last night when it hit a tow truck that was servicing a vehicle on the highway near Moscow.

According to local media, he and his two children were severely injured and transported to the hospital.

The Model S caught on fire shortly after the accident and then exploded

Link

[Venkatesh]

Tesla's Vehicle Fire Data provided for the period 2012-2020 reveals that there has been about one vehicle fire for every 205 million miles traveled.

From 2012 – 2020, there has been approximately one Tesla vehicle fire for every 205 million miles traveled. By comparison, data from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and U.S. Department of Transportation shows that in the United States there is a vehicle fire for every 19 million miles traveled.

In order to provide an apt comparison to NFPA data, Tesla’s data set includes instances of vehicle fires caused by structure fires, arson, and other things unrelated to the vehicle, which account for some of the Tesla vehicle fires over this time period"

Source

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Tesla's Vehicle Fire Data provided for the period 2012-2020 reveals that there has been about one vehicle fire for every 205 million miles traveled.

So Tesla's are 10 times safer than gasoline cars, I am sure if we take other EVs also into account they will be atleast 5 times safer than ICE cars. All the talk about EVs are not safe, or those comparing batteries to a bomb is just not true. The nascent EV tech proved safer than century old ICE tech.

[--gKrish--]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Tesla's Vehicle Fire Data provided for the period 2012-2020 reveals that there has been about one vehicle fire for every 205 million miles traveled.

Is this fire incidents vs kms a common data point for all makes of EVs? I believe, if this report was for some other mainstream ICE car, it would have been no. of fires incidents (or no. of cars that caught fire) vs total no. of cars.

I do not understand how the number of kms comes into play here. I think they should have given out detailed information about the cars that have caught fire like the age of battery, kms covered by the car when it caught fire, ambient temperature of the place of each incident, history of accident damage/repair in the cars that have caught fire, total no. of charging cycles etc. (considering these cars are way less in number with respect to the total no. of cars).