Depends on the chemistry. Notice a lack of any Leaf or Volt fires, despite many more being on the road? Li-manganese and li-phosphate go into thermal runaway at

Depends on the chemistry. Notice a lack of any Leaf or Volt fires, despite many more being on the road? Li-manganese and li-phosphate go into thermal runaway at 2.5C and 3.4C respectively (C being the rate at which a battery would be depleted in one hour). The Tesla batteries do it at about 300C. Tesla gets a cheaper and much more energy dense battery in exchange for that risk, but they also have to deal with PR events like this. As an aside, I'd totally drive a Tesla if I could afford it. I'm not trying to say the car is unsafe. They use a riskier chemistry, but they've also gone to extraordinary lengths to manage that risk with really aggressive thermal management, barriers, etc. There have yet to be any injuries.