"On average, 31 highway vehicle fires were reported per hour. These fires killed one person a day. Overall, highway vehicles fires were involved in 17% of reported U.S. fires, 12% of U.S. fire deaths, 8% of U.S. civilian fire injuries, and 9% of the direct property damage from reported fires. "
Electrek has a longer video in their article: https://electrek.co/2018/06/16/tesla-model-s-battery-fire-in...
The fire looks like some high pressure gas burning to me, with the flames violently exiting to the left. If you watch the longer video, this is mostly over by the time the firefighters arrive.
This could point to the fire being not in the battery, but the AC unit, which is in the front of the vehicle. Modern AC units contain flammable chemicals and when operating would be pressurized.
Automotive AC units use HCFC/HFC gases not HC, HCFC/HFC are not flammable.
If Tesla used R-290 or R-600 (propane and iso-butane) refrigerants in their AC they are well idiots and there is little chance that this would’ve passed regulation.
The video you linked looks just like batery venting.
A battery fire should have been detected by the BMS. It would be sampling an array of temperature sensors in the battery pack multiple times per second, and any temperature out of range events would be captured. This is either a huge failure of the BMS, which should have detected the fire and triggered a derating of the motor and disconnetion of the battery from the powertrain (which didn't happen as the driver was flagged to pull over by pedestrians), or this wasn't a battery fire.
If need be, Tesla will come out with a huge report at some point adding up the so many more incidents and faults of other car companies out there that happen every week of every month of every year, to remind people how unfairly Tesla are being singled out (for every damn incident that happens) just because they're the sexiest car company in the world.
It's good though to end the false perception that Tesla is the pure stuff of world-saving unicorns. Sorry Elon those times are over. Just get to work and do your best to achieve the goals you've set out in public. I sure don't want you to stop.
As the owner of a Vauxhall Zafira which has 2 recalls to fix an issue of catching fire, it is very important to make sure any manufacturer has swiftly and addresses the issues. Vauxhall dragged its feet in publicly recognising the issue which ultimately caused them a lot of negative press and a criminal investigation. I want a Tesla someday, but do pay attention to how they respond to such issues.
If it's big enough news to be covered by The Guardian (a major "serious" news outlet here in the UK) it seems it may be of interest given Tesla tends to be closely followed on this board. A car catching fire for no apparent reason while driving normally in traffic in an urban area could point to an important problem, do you not think?
[+] [-] jaimex2|7 years ago|reply
"On average, 31 highway vehicle fires were reported per hour. These fires killed one person a day. Overall, highway vehicles fires were involved in 17% of reported U.S. fires, 12% of U.S. fire deaths, 8% of U.S. civilian fire injuries, and 9% of the direct property damage from reported fires. "
https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Fire-statistics-and-r...
[+] [-] lord_ring_11|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _ph_|7 years ago|reply
This could point to the fire being not in the battery, but the AC unit, which is in the front of the vehicle. Modern AC units contain flammable chemicals and when operating would be pressurized.
[+] [-] dogma1138|7 years ago|reply
If Tesla used R-290 or R-600 (propane and iso-butane) refrigerants in their AC they are well idiots and there is little chance that this would’ve passed regulation.
The video you linked looks just like batery venting.
https://youtu.be/WnZuMfq6kec
[+] [-] zormino|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rasz|7 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J-h6fC1GrU 2 and 6:50 minute mark for quite dramatic demonstrations
[+] [-] Bigsy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindfulhack|7 years ago|reply
It's good though to end the false perception that Tesla is the pure stuff of world-saving unicorns. Sorry Elon those times are over. Just get to work and do your best to achieve the goals you've set out in public. I sure don't want you to stop.
[+] [-] martin-adams|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] torpedo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Faaak|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Angostura|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seanhunter|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teaspoons|7 years ago|reply