A Tesla S car blew up in flames in Seattle resulting to lower investment ratings and a significant fall in its share value.
Pictures and video posted online showed a Tesla S car burning along a street in Seattle. According to reports, the man driving the car happened to strike some unknown metallic material that caused the fire. The local firemen soon responded and put out the fire.
According to Tesla, the highly advanced electric car had cautioned the driver that there was a car trouble and advised him to pull over. Tesla also said that the car fire was contained by the vehicle's special design and battery structure. Although the car took immense damage to its hood, the alert system saved from injury the driver and the rest of the people along the street.
This fire accident caused Robert W. Baird & Co. to change its earlier trade projections for Tesla's shares from positive to neutral. The investment analysts had forecasted that the company would do better than that of the market but it took that back reporting a lower rating as they expect the company to face product development and expansion issues.
Fire troubles don't usually impact car shares much but for Tesla it did. The previously towering Tesla shares fell as much as 6 percent the day the pictures and video were posted online. The stocks closed at $180.95 per share, a significant decrease of $12.05 from the previous day.
Investors today are sensitive to fire troubles in electric products including electric car manufacturers, planes and even computers. Safety is becoming a paramount concern to officials and this took them to look out for battery systems using lithium ions which are said to be prone to fires.
Companies like Boeing and Chevrolet had received close investigations about fire accidents related to their products. Boeing 787 models were prohibited by federal officials to operate because of two overheating planes. Chevrolet on the other hand had extreme test crashes administered by the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) that caused several fire incidences.
What these companies did was to investigate the cause of the issue and proceed with product changes to improve safety. Perhaps Tesla can adopt this direction to improve product safety and save its declining shares.
