Federal Regulators Will Not Investigate Tesla Model S Fire
In an e-mailed statement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that it has decided against launching a formal investigation into the Washington state fire early this month involving a Tesla Model S. The electric car ran over some metal debris that punctured the front battery pack, sparking the fire. NHTSA said that it found no evidence of violations of federal motor vehicle safety standard or that the fire resulted from a vehicle defect.
A Tesla spokesperson said that the carmaker had no immediate response to NHTSA’s decision. In an October 5th blog post, CEO Elon Musk insisted that the Model S was safe, saying that the fire resulted from an unusual crash that would have resulted in a fire in a gasoline car as well.
More by TTAC Staff
Comments
Join the conversation
I have a friend who ran over a piece of metal in the road and ripped open the gas tank of a car. Made for a nice fire too. The Feds did not investigate that one either. Nothing to see here folks.
Exactly, move along, Tesla is "green" so no harm done.
This really doesn't look good. A very unappealing failure mode. Still might be fixable with some sort of a skid plate, or they may be on the money in their defense. It is an extremely rare and unusual event that will never occur again and thus requires no action. After all, they have what, a couple of thousand of them out on the road? There are a couple hundred million gasoline cars on the road. A fuel tank fire due to running over road debris is virtually unheard of, even with tens of millions with plastic fuel tanks. One fail out of this population due to running over debris in the road is just very unappealing. Glad I will not have to talk to the regulators about this one for them. They had to jam a steel bar through the Volt's battery pack and turn it upside down for days to get a fire. Some of the press hammered on the issue like it was a real world problem. Tesla now actually bursts into flames after just driving over debris in the road???? It will interesting to see how it plays out. I perceive Tesla as the beloved of the left and media and won't be surprised if they get a pass from most media.
$100 says that if it was a Chevy Volt or a now defunct Fisker. They would be all over it and it would be headlines in most newspapers and all over Fox News.