Gas cars catch fire out of the blue on occasion as well, In fact there were 152,000 car fires per year in the period 2006-2010. Only 4% of those were collision-related[1].<p>Not saying this shouldn’t be investigated, but nobody was injured, and this now makes ONE non-crash Tesla battery fire that I’m aware of.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/By-topic/Property-type-and-vehicles/Vehicles" rel="nofollow">https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/By-topic/Property-type...</a>
This one is particularly painful for Tesla as the owner’s wife is a minor celebrity with major celebrity friends.<p>Reputational damage risk in this case could be significantly magnified due to Chelsea Handler’s recent tweet to 8.8 million followers:<p>“Everyone with an early model Tesla needs to be aware of this. I have one that I will not be driving again. @Tesla @elonmusk”<p>Ouch!
Wasn't a previous Tesla fire caused by a bit of metal debris on the road puncturing the batteries, a la the Concorde crash?<p>That wouldn't be a <i>crash</i> per se, but neither is it spontaneous combustion. It's just the kind of not-too-unusual damage which should probably be better planned for.
This isn't unexpected to happen occasionally, as long as it is rare. Nothing is failure proof and the failure mode for a big battery is many times fire. This is like reporting on somebodies car throwing a rod while on the road or another fire.
This isn't news. Do we need to blow every little thing happening to Tesla out of proportion? Not to mention, the inside cabin doesn't even look affected.