3 ms·
In making that claim he's presumably assuming that the battery design prevents a cascading failure where the failure of one battery module causes adjacent ones
by pja 13y ago
In making that claim he's presumably assuming that the battery design prevents a cascading failure where the failure of one battery module causes adjacent ones to fail in turn. He's also assuming that there's no external factor that could cause all the battery compartments to fail simultaneously. It's partially PR fluff in other words.
The total combustion energy of the battery pack is only 10% of that of the petrol tank in a petrol-fueled vehicle partially because the energy density of Lithium-ion cells is significantly less than petrol or diesel fuel, which is why the Model S has half the range of similar conventionally fuelled cars in it's class. I'd also speculate that he's only measuring the combustion energy of the hydrogen that could escape & ignoring any electrical heat generated. The control systems on the batteries ought to cut the connections to the cells if they detect a short of course, but no system is perfect & he's very careful to use the more specific term "combustion energy".
- kbenson 13y ago> In making that claim he's presumably assuming that the battery design prevents a cascading failure where the failure of one battery module causes adjacent ones to fail in turn. He's also assuming that there's no external factor that could cause all the battery compartments to fail simultaneously. It's partially PR fluff in other words. Maybe. When the dreamliner battery fire happened, had quite a bit to say regarding batteries and cascading failure. He's surely making some assumptions (such as discounting an external factor as you state), but it's not like he isn't on record asserting they have put some effort into preventing or mitigating this exact problem[1]. [1]: http://www.dailytech.com/Tesla+CEO+Elon+Musk+Says+Boeings+787+Dreamliner+Battery+is+Unsafe/article29781.htm http://www.dailytech.com/Tesla+CEO+Elon+Musk+Says+Boeings+78...