Wednesday, November 20, 2013

"Musk repeated his criticism that the Tesla car fires receive too much negative attention from the media given that gasoline car fires happen more often, the Model S was given high safety ratings by the NHTSA and there have been "zero" serious injuries in a Tesla car. "Since the Model S went into production last year, there have been more than a quarter million gasoline car fires in the United States alone, resulting in over 400 deaths and approximately 1,200 serious injuries," Musk said, extrapolating 2012 data from the National Fire Protection Association."

This link. The item is about Tesla electric car, battery fires. The Crabgrass headlining is from the item. It seems gasoline powered auto usage has an inherently greater fire injury and risk liklihood, when compared to electric vehicle uses. The question with the Tesla vehicle is whether the battery location is suboptimal, as a road-impact safety consideration. Apparently there is no consensus about the best positioning of battery cells. Weight distribution and handling might favor how Tesla locates the batteries; while impact safety worry might favor something different.