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It looks like they're backing off the claim that the fire was contained to only one cell. It's unclear, but if the fire were contained to only one cell, it's l
by codex 13y ago
It looks like they're backing off the claim that the fire was contained to only one cell. It's unclear, but if the fire were contained to only one cell, it's likely they would mention it:
"A fire caused by the impact began in the front battery module – the battery pack has a total of 16 modules – but was contained to the front section of the car by internal firewalls within the pack."
If the fire was able to jump cells, does this make the battery pack "fundamentally unsound", as Elon has described the Boeing battery? Not necessarily. However, merely puncturing the gas tank of a ICE car in this way is not guaranteed to set the gasoline on fire. The ignition temperature of gasoline is over 500 F and the gas tank itself is plastic, most likely. Gasoline vapor is explosive, but the car was traveling fairly rapidly and a there's a fair amount of wind to dispel vapor. The ignition source would have to be heat from the metal of the debris self-striking metal of the debris, or though both layers of plastic to the auto frame itself, and that spark would have to find some gasoline, which is pooled at the bottom of the tank and not near the top. I suppose it's possible. Car crashes do produce burning gasoline, though usually it's a very severe crash that mixes gas vapor with the heat of the engine.
- btbuilder 13y agoI also wonder whether the surface area that, if punctured, poses a fire risk is larger on a Tesla than on a gasoline vehicle.
- 001sky 13y agowithin the pac This is worth noting. The fire did not stop and kept reignighting. The FD had to flip the car on its side and physically gain access by cutting the car up, to put the fire out. Under this scenario, it seems dubious that compartmentalization would be sufficient. Thermal conductivity at some stage would overcome the situation. Also, you are right to highlight that petrol fuel systems are a cause only on a tiny minority of real-life auto accident related fires (~2%). The safety of petrol engines is actually quite high in this regards (counter-intuitive, perhaps). Plastic has the ability to deform rather than crack (flexibil vs brittle) and also the position of the fuel cells is much more protected. Think about the debris from front-tires -- much more likely to hit the undercarriage (where the Tesla battery is) than behind the rear axel (where many tanks are). Debris hit by the rear tires of course exits behidnd the car in either scenario. This setup is obviously not by chance. The Li Ion battery is probably low for COG reasons and fore-aft weight distribution. Li ION is much heavier than petrol.