7 ms·

Tesla Model S battery bursts into flames, car “totally destroyed” in 5 minutes

43 points by nfvs 10y ago

whamlastxmas 10y ago
Burst is maybe the wrong verb. It gave over a minute's notice to the driver to get the fuck out before it started being visibly on fire. No one was hurt.
ClayM 10y ago
Credit to the Tesla guys for setting up the monitoring so well that it kept everybody alive.
- holtalanm 10y ago
  Was gonna say that. Gas burners don't give any such warning. When I was a kid, I remember seeing my neighbors truck going up in flames in mere SECONDS. They got in the truck, turned the key, and it didn't start. They felt the dashboard and it was hot. As soon as they got out, the whole truck went up in flames. This was an older truck, but still, can't think of any vehicles nowadays besides a high-tech car giving a warning about impending immolation.
  - LeifCarrotson 10y ago
    I wonder if they could add sensors for fire detection to an ICE vehicle, or if the fact that it literally contains thousands of fires a second, belches smoke out the exhaust pipe, and has internal components at hundreds of degrees makes this impossible?
    - dsfyu404ed 10y ago
      I'm betting the warning from tesla was basically a "if the battery sensors go out of normal range on the high side and don't respond to additional cooling system input then tell the passengers to gtfo" Which isn't much more advanced than the old "printer on fire" error.
cperciva 10y ago
A few months ago someone was test-driving a BMW when it burst into flames a block away from my home. The driver narrowly escaped unharmed; unlike this Tesla incident, there was no warning provided by the vehicle. But I'm pretty sure none of you have read news articles about the BMW which burst into flames in Burnaby a few months ago, because non-electric cars bursting into flames is just something which happens. As long as Tesla incidents like this are news stories, I'd say they're doing pretty well.
- aedron 10y ago
  Funny, I was going to comment that I have never heard of a regular car spontaneously erupting into flames. Warning or no, that is a life-threatening situation. Imagine you had a couple of toddlers strapped in, somehow missed the warning notice, etc.
  - CraigJPerry 10y ago
    In the UK there isn't a week goes past without a Vauxhall zafira (often several!) Bursting into flames. Top Google link today: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1384280/family-of-five-miraculously-escape-as-their-vauxhall-zafira-bursts-into-flames-in-a-mcdonalds-drive-through/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1384280/family-of-five-miracul... I know there's been a fight for a recall for around 5 years but I think that's now going to happen. Tesla need to make many more cars explode in a fireball and they need to learn how to stonewall customers if they're to have any chance of joining the heady heights of mainstream car manufacturers.
  - rkangel 10y ago
    I had a friend who was driving home from University at the end of term, along a motorway. Without warning flames appeared from the bonnet. She pulled over hurriedly and jumped out of the car, to watch fire consume the car and all her possessions in just a few minute. More anecdotal evidence, but yes ICE car fires are not uncommon. We all know that Teslas are better than ICE for safety, but that doesn't mean there isn't a marketing challenge to get the public to think like that.
  - jschwartzi 10y ago
venning 10y ago
I do appreciate stories such as this. I don't draw any conclusions from them, but they are nice data points to have. New technology comes with new performance and safety envelopes, often unknown even to the engineers who design them. Reporting on otherwise unknowable events is helpful to build a picture of what those envelopes are. Without such reporting, it's unlikely that Tesla would have added the underbody plating when they did. Perhaps this incident is an aberration, or perhaps it is one of multiple incidents where the plating can be pierced and it leads to an upgrade. Either way, it's nice to know. Regarding ICE cars, Ferrari had a problem with a certain mid-engine model a few generations back where a fuel line would disconnect under hard driving and spray high-pressure fuel on the (hot) engine to obvious result. I don't believe any one was killed, but drivers sometimes reported barely making it out of the car in time. Enough reports of such incidents led to Ferrari investigating and making sufficient changes to prevent the fires.
Already__Taken 10y ago
Cars burn really well as it is. I saw someone hop a curb in front of me. Must have nicked the sump because there was a tiny flame under the now stopped car. I came back not more than 30 minutes later to see the fire brigade had put out a completely burnt out husk of a car.
- dsfyu404ed 10y ago
  Doubt it involved the oil pan. Motor oil is VERY hard to ignite and normally won't sustain itself once its on fire. ATF, p/s fluid (or other general purpose hydraulic fluids) is more flammable but there's a really wide range depending on the oil in question. Some ATF burns easy, other stuff not so much. I'd put my money on battery cables and shorts knocking stuff of its mounts could definitely pinch a cable and short.
JustUhThought 10y ago
I bet they still bought a Tesla.
jonlucc 10y ago
How much is insurance for a Tesla S vs a comparable fuel car?
brador 10y ago
Why not separate the driver compartment from the battery packs using a fireproof wall? Or surround the batteries in a fireproof "box" with a vent? Or add a gas based fire damping system like data centres use? Battery bursting into flames, destroying the whole car and putting the driver and passengers at risk just seems so archaic.
- serg_chernata 10y ago
  I was pretty sure there is a ceramic barrier or something along those lines.
- dandrews 10y ago
  One misfeature of most "lithium ion" cells is that their cathodes produce oxygen under high temperatures. One very good reason for Segway (e.g.) to use lithium-iron-phosphate cells - they're far less likely to burn, though their power density suffers over conventional cells.
- dsfyu404ed 10y ago
  The navy used to use this thing called asbestos to do just that. Then people complained about safety and the good times came to an end. Ironic how you're basically asking for something to do what asbestos was good at for a safety application. Whoever creates a material with similar properties and cost to asbestos without all the cancer will become very wealthy.
- stormcrowsx 10y ago
  Fireproof barriers are mostly just meant to give the driver time to exit. When there's a lot of fuel burning there's not much one can do except try and redirect the fire away from harming the people inside it. Eventually they give or the fire bypasses it by heating up other parts of the car and causing those to combust.
helthanatos 10y ago
Tesla's energy department may want to investigate ways to make their batteries less destructive.
- jmcdiesel 10y ago
  No they don't... cares combust on a fairly regular (albiet low probability) basis... and Tesla actually has sensors and warnings unlike most cars...
  - helthanatos 10y ago
    It wasn't a slam on Tesla... It would be cool to have batteries that don't explode.
    - dsfyu404ed 10y ago
      Good luck. They store energy by picking up a bunch of negative charge. When they're physically deformed/destroyed those electrons will find their way somewhere else very quickly and things will get hot when that happens.

43 points by nfvs 10y ago

Burst is maybe the wrong verb. It gave over a minute's notice to the driver to get the fuck out before it started being visibly on fire. No one was hurt.

ClayM 10y ago

Credit to the Tesla guys for setting up the monitoring so well that it kept everybody alive.

holtalanm 10y ago
Was gonna say that. Gas burners don't give any such warning. When I was a kid, I remember seeing my neighbors truck going up in flames in mere SECONDS. They got in the truck, turned the key, and it didn't start. They felt the dashboard and it was hot. As soon as they got out, the whole truck went up in flames. This was an older truck, but still, can't think of any vehicles nowadays besides a high-tech car giving a warning about impending immolation.
- LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  I wonder if they could add sensors for fire detection to an ICE vehicle, or if the fact that it literally contains thousands of fires a second, belches smoke out the exhaust pipe, and has internal components at hundreds of degrees makes this impossible?
  - dsfyu404ed 10y ago
    I'm betting the warning from tesla was basically a "if the battery sensors go out of normal range on the high side and don't respond to additional cooling system input then tell the passengers to gtfo" Which isn't much more advanced than the old "printer on fire" error.

cperciva 10y ago

A few months ago someone was test-driving a BMW when it burst into flames a block away from my home. The driver narrowly escaped unharmed; unlike this Tesla incident, there was no warning provided by the vehicle. But I'm pretty sure none of you have read news articles about the BMW which burst into flames in Burnaby a few months ago, because non-electric cars bursting into flames is just something which happens. As long as Tesla incidents like this are news stories, I'd say they're doing pretty well.

aedron 10y ago
Funny, I was going to comment that I have never heard of a regular car spontaneously erupting into flames. Warning or no, that is a life-threatening situation. Imagine you had a couple of toddlers strapped in, somehow missed the warning notice, etc.
- CraigJPerry 10y ago
  In the UK there isn't a week goes past without a Vauxhall zafira (often several!) Bursting into flames. Top Google link today: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1384280/family-of-five-miraculously-escape-as-their-vauxhall-zafira-bursts-into-flames-in-a-mcdonalds-drive-through/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1384280/family-of-five-miracul... I know there's been a fight for a recall for around 5 years but I think that's now going to happen. Tesla need to make many more cars explode in a fireball and they need to learn how to stonewall customers if they're to have any chance of joining the heady heights of mainstream car manufacturers.
- rkangel 10y ago
  I had a friend who was driving home from University at the end of term, along a motorway. Without warning flames appeared from the bonnet. She pulled over hurriedly and jumped out of the car, to watch fire consume the car and all her possessions in just a few minute. More anecdotal evidence, but yes ICE car fires are not uncommon. We all know that Teslas are better than ICE for safety, but that doesn't mean there isn't a marketing challenge to get the public to think like that.
- jschwartzi 10y ago

venning 10y ago

I do appreciate stories such as this. I don't draw any conclusions from them, but they are nice data points to have. New technology comes with new performance and safety envelopes, often unknown even to the engineers who design them. Reporting on otherwise unknowable events is helpful to build a picture of what those envelopes are. Without such reporting, it's unlikely that Tesla would have added the underbody plating when they did. Perhaps this incident is an aberration, or perhaps it is one of multiple incidents where the plating can be pierced and it leads to an upgrade. Either way, it's nice to know. Regarding ICE cars, Ferrari had a problem with a certain mid-engine model a few generations back where a fuel line would disconnect under hard driving and spray high-pressure fuel on the (hot) engine to obvious result. I don't believe any one was killed, but drivers sometimes reported barely making it out of the car in time. Enough reports of such incidents led to Ferrari investigating and making sufficient changes to prevent the fires.

Already__Taken 10y ago

Cars burn really well as it is. I saw someone hop a curb in front of me. Must have nicked the sump because there was a tiny flame under the now stopped car. I came back not more than 30 minutes later to see the fire brigade had put out a completely burnt out husk of a car.

dsfyu404ed 10y ago
Doubt it involved the oil pan. Motor oil is VERY hard to ignite and normally won't sustain itself once its on fire. ATF, p/s fluid (or other general purpose hydraulic fluids) is more flammable but there's a really wide range depending on the oil in question. Some ATF burns easy, other stuff not so much. I'd put my money on battery cables and shorts knocking stuff of its mounts could definitely pinch a cable and short.

JustUhThought 10y ago

I bet they still bought a Tesla.

jonlucc 10y ago

How much is insurance for a Tesla S vs a comparable fuel car?

brador 10y ago

Why not separate the driver compartment from the battery packs using a fireproof wall? Or surround the batteries in a fireproof "box" with a vent? Or add a gas based fire damping system like data centres use? Battery bursting into flames, destroying the whole car and putting the driver and passengers at risk just seems so archaic.

serg_chernata 10y ago
I was pretty sure there is a ceramic barrier or something along those lines.
dandrews 10y ago
One misfeature of most "lithium ion" cells is that their cathodes produce oxygen under high temperatures. One very good reason for Segway (e.g.) to use lithium-iron-phosphate cells - they're far less likely to burn, though their power density suffers over conventional cells.
dsfyu404ed 10y ago
The navy used to use this thing called asbestos to do just that. Then people complained about safety and the good times came to an end. Ironic how you're basically asking for something to do what asbestos was good at for a safety application. Whoever creates a material with similar properties and cost to asbestos without all the cancer will become very wealthy.
stormcrowsx 10y ago
Fireproof barriers are mostly just meant to give the driver time to exit. When there's a lot of fuel burning there's not much one can do except try and redirect the fire away from harming the people inside it. Eventually they give or the fire bypasses it by heating up other parts of the car and causing those to combust.

helthanatos 10y ago

Tesla's energy department may want to investigate ways to make their batteries less destructive.

jmcdiesel 10y ago
No they don't... cares combust on a fairly regular (albiet low probability) basis... and Tesla actually has sensors and warnings unlike most cars...
- helthanatos 10y ago
  It wasn't a slam on Tesla... It would be cool to have batteries that don't explode.
  - dsfyu404ed 10y ago
    Good luck. They store energy by picking up a bunch of negative charge. When they're physically deformed/destroyed those electrons will find their way somewhere else very quickly and things will get hot when that happens.