
Tesla Model S battery bursts into flames, car “totally destroyed” in 5 minutes - nfvs
http://arstechnica.co.uk/cars/2016/08/tesla-model-s-france-battery-fire/
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cperciva
A few months ago someone was test-driving a BMW when it burst into flames a
block away from my home. The driver narrowly escaped unharmed; unlike this
Tesla incident, there was no warning provided by the vehicle.

But I'm pretty sure none of you have read news articles about the BMW which
burst into flames in Burnaby a few months ago, because non-electric cars
bursting into flames is just something which happens. As long as Tesla
incidents like this are news stories, I'd say they're doing pretty well.

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aedron
Funny, I was going to comment that I have never heard of a regular car
spontaneously erupting into flames. Warning or no, that is a life-threatening
situation. Imagine you had a couple of toddlers strapped in, somehow missed
the warning notice, etc.

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jdietrich
According to the NFPA, there are on average 152,000 car fires per year
resulting in 209 fatalities. That represents 10% of all fires in the United
States.

Car fires aren't newsworthy, because they happen _all the time_. A car's
engine bay is full of scalding hot parts and highly flammable liquid. All it
takes for a car to turn into a fireball is a small fuel leak. A small
electrical fire can quickly become catastrophic.

[http://www.nfpa.org/public-education/by-topic/property-
type-...](http://www.nfpa.org/public-education/by-topic/property-type-and-
vehicles/vehicles)

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sjwright
Flammable, but not as flammable as a layperson might think.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nL10C7FSbE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nL10C7FSbE)

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whamlastxmas
Burst is maybe the wrong verb. It gave over a minute's notice to the driver to
get the fuck out before it started being visibly on fire. No one was hurt.

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ClayM
Credit to the Tesla guys for setting up the monitoring so well that it kept
everybody alive.

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holtalanm
Was gonna say that. Gas burners don't give any such warning.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing my neighbors truck going up in flames in
mere SECONDS. They got in the truck, turned the key, and it didn't start. They
felt the dashboard and it was hot. As soon as they got out, the whole truck
went up in flames.

This was an older truck, but still, can't think of any vehicles nowadays
besides a high-tech car giving a warning about impending immolation.

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LeifCarrotson
I wonder if they could add sensors for fire detection to an ICE vehicle, or if
the fact that it literally contains thousands of fires a second, belches smoke
out the exhaust pipe, and has internal components at hundreds of degrees makes
this impossible?

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dsfyu404ed
I'm betting the warning from tesla was basically a "if the battery sensors go
out of normal range on the high side and don't respond to additional cooling
system input then tell the passengers to gtfo" Which isn't much more advanced
than the old "printer on fire" error.

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venning
I do appreciate stories such as this. I don't draw any conclusions from them,
but they are nice data points to have. New technology comes with new
performance and safety envelopes, often unknown even to the engineers who
design them. Reporting on otherwise unknowable events is helpful to build a
picture of what those envelopes are.

Without such reporting, it's unlikely that Tesla would have added the
underbody plating when they did. Perhaps this incident is an aberration, or
perhaps it is one of multiple incidents where the plating can be pierced and
it leads to an upgrade. Either way, it's nice to know.

Regarding ICE cars, Ferrari had a problem with a certain mid-engine model a
few generations back where a fuel line would disconnect under hard driving and
spray high-pressure fuel on the (hot) engine to obvious result. I don't
believe any one was killed, but drivers sometimes reported barely making it
out of the car in time. Enough reports of such incidents led to Ferrari
investigating and making sufficient changes to prevent the fires.

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brador
Why not separate the driver compartment from the battery packs using a
fireproof wall? Or surround the batteries in a fireproof "box" with a vent? Or
add a gas based fire damping system like data centres use?

Battery bursting into flames, destroying the whole car and putting the driver
and passengers at risk just seems so archaic.

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dandrews
One misfeature of most "lithium ion" cells is that their cathodes produce
oxygen under high temperatures. One very good reason for Segway (e.g.) to use
lithium-iron-phosphate cells - they're _far_ less likely to burn, though their
power density suffers over conventional cells.

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Already__Taken
Cars burn really well as it is. I saw someone hop a curb in front of me. Must
have nicked the sump because there was a tiny flame under the now stopped car.
I came back not more than 30 minutes later to see the fire brigade had put out
a completely burnt out husk of a car.

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dsfyu404ed
Doubt it involved the oil pan. Motor oil is VERY hard to ignite and normally
won't sustain itself once its on fire. ATF, p/s fluid (or other general
purpose hydraulic fluids) is more flammable but there's a really wide range
depending on the oil in question. Some ATF burns easy, other stuff not so
much. I'd put my money on battery cables and shorts knocking stuff of its
mounts could definitely pinch a cable and short.

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JustUhThought
I bet they still bought a Tesla.

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jonlucc
How much is insurance for a Tesla S vs a comparable fuel car?

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helthanatos
Tesla's energy department may want to investigate ways to make their batteries
less destructive.

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jmcdiesel
No they don't... cares combust on a fairly regular (albiet low probability)
basis... and Tesla actually has sensors and warnings unlike most cars...

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helthanatos
It wasn't a slam on Tesla... It would be cool to have batteries that don't
explode.

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dsfyu404ed
Good luck. They store energy by picking up a bunch of negative charge. When
they're physically deformed/destroyed those electrons will find their way
somewhere else very quickly and things will get hot when that happens.

