4 ms·

EVs burn frequently on the internet. Compared to the fema estimate of 171,500 highway car fires per year. https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/

EVs burn frequently on the internet. Compared to the fema estimate of 171,500 highway car fires per year. https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v19i2.pdf https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v19i2.pdf Tesla has contributed 14 total since 2013. I know of at least 2 other cases by others have been reported https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/22/tesla-investigates-video-of-model-s-car-exploding https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/22/tesla-inv...

o_p 7y ago
Its 171k fires in 2 years not per year. You need the total Teslas vs ICE cars in the road to compare those figures. Even then not sure if its a good comparision because Tesla is on the luxury side, it should be compared with ICE cars in the same price range, not any chinese car with little safety. Common sense tells me that a big,unstable ion lithium battery at high speeds is not a good idea, gasoline is much less reactive than people think.
- dwaltrip 7y ago
  There are 4 orders of magnitude between 14 and 171,000. I could be wrong, but I don't think those adjustments will cross that divide.
  - zimpenfish 7y ago
    From https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/VehicleSafetyReport https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/VehicleSafetyReport "From 2012 – 2018, there has been approximately one Tesla vehicle fire for every 170 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." (No indication whether the NFPA/DOT numbers include the Tesla fires, though, or how many of those are arson - in the UK, arson accounts for about 65% of vehicle fires which you can't really blame on the ICE. If the US is the same, that'd increase the 19M miles to ~54M miles per fire - still looks good for Tesla tho', especially when you consider that the ICE has 100 years of safety development compared to, what, 10 for the Teslas?)
    - dwaltrip 7y ago
      Thanks for digging that up and sharing. Looks like Tesla's are safer than your average ICE when it comes to vehicle fires, but not by multiple orders of magnitude. Although, as you say, that gap may widen as they have more years to invest in safety.
- zimpenfish 7y ago
  > Its 171k fires in 2 years not per year. No, I think it's per-year - "Each year, from 2014 to 2016, an estimated 171,500 highway vehicle fires occurred in the United States"

o_p 7y ago

Its 171k fires in 2 years not per year. You need the total Teslas vs ICE cars in the road to compare those figures. Even then not sure if its a good comparision because Tesla is on the luxury side, it should be compared with ICE cars in the same price range, not any chinese car with little safety. Common sense tells me that a big,unstable ion lithium battery at high speeds is not a good idea, gasoline is much less reactive than people think.

dwaltrip 7y ago
There are 4 orders of magnitude between 14 and 171,000. I could be wrong, but I don't think those adjustments will cross that divide.
- zimpenfish 7y ago
  From https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/VehicleSafetyReport https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/VehicleSafetyReport "From 2012 – 2018, there has been approximately one Tesla vehicle fire for every 170 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." (No indication whether the NFPA/DOT numbers include the Tesla fires, though, or how many of those are arson - in the UK, arson accounts for about 65% of vehicle fires which you can't really blame on the ICE. If the US is the same, that'd increase the 19M miles to ~54M miles per fire - still looks good for Tesla tho', especially when you consider that the ICE has 100 years of safety development compared to, what, 10 for the Teslas?)
  - dwaltrip 7y ago
    Thanks for digging that up and sharing. Looks like Tesla's are safer than your average ICE when it comes to vehicle fires, but not by multiple orders of magnitude. Although, as you say, that gap may widen as they have more years to invest in safety.
zimpenfish 7y ago
> Its 171k fires in 2 years not per year. No, I think it's per-year - "Each year, from 2014 to 2016, an estimated 171,500 highway vehicle fires occurred in the United States"