The Seattle fire accident on the Tesla S could have resulted to something worse had the car been a conventional car, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
After the Tesla S fire incident in Seattle, chief executive officer Elon Musk used the social media to defend the electric-powered car. He stands firm that the Tesla car is a lot safer, saying that if it happened to an ordinary, gas-fueled car the fire could have caused a serious accident along the Seattle street.
Pictures and videos of the Tesla S burning in flames had gone viral over the net and Musk had reacted to defend the electric car’s safety. “Had a conventional gasoline car encountered the same object on the highway, the result could have been far worse," wrote Musk on the official Tesla blog site.
According to the Tesla CEO, there are about 150,000 fire car accidents every year while Tesla records a single incident for a hundred mile drive. "This means you are five times more likely to experience a fire in a conventional gasoline car than a Tesla!"
Based on Seattle’s official report, the Tesla S had experienced a 25-ton impact with a huge metal material along the hi-way. With the speed on the main road, the metal substance tore three inches of the armor plate after it struck underneath the vehicle. This resulted to the battery pack of the electric car to burn in flames. Fortunately, the combustion was limited inside its firewalls while the vents had redirected the flames from the rest of the car.
Had the vehicle been a gas-fueled car, the damage could have been far worse. The gas tank or tube is not as protected in a gas-fueled car, the dent possibly allowing gas to spill and cause the car to burn in flames.
Musk explained in his post that "In contrast, the combustion energy of our battery pack is only about 10 percent of the energy contained in a gasoline tank and is divided into 16 modules with firewalls between. As a result, the effective combustion potential is only about 1% that of the fuel in a comparable gasoline sedan."
The Tesla S is also equipped with an alert system which activates in such emergency situations. In this case, soon as the metal material damaged the battery pack, it issued instructions for the driver to pull over and safely get out.
Tesla’s share value dipped within the week when the pictures and video broke out in the social media sites. At the onset, share price dipped to $168 from $190, then after a while it picked up at $180 per share last Friday.
