Tesla has reported another Model S fire making that three fires for the electric vehicle in just the last six weeks.
This time the fire happened in Smyrna, Tennessee where the driver managed to pull over and exit the vehicle without coming to any harm. The situation was similar with all three fires in that the drivers were fine despite the vehicles receiving significant fire damage.
Another similarity, and one that’s very important to note, is that none of these fires were spontaneous incidents. The first fire, back on October 1st, happened near Seattle when the driver hit metal debris in the road. The metal punched a hole in the plating that protects the battery pack resulting in a fire.
Safety regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determined that there was no defect that caused that first fire. Since it was caused simply by road debris, they felt that no further investigation was warranted into the accident.
It’s not surprising that they chose not to pursue an investigation as they typically investigate only a small number of the roughly 180,000 vehicle fires that happen in the US each year.
The second fire was reported not in the US, but in Merida, Mexico and was the result of an early morning high speed crash. The driver of this Tesla Model S sped through a roundabout, hit a pedestrian crossing and caught some air before he hit a wall and eventually a tree. Clearly, not a typical situation, but one in which a severe crash caused the fire.
This most recent incident in Tennessee appears to also have involved some kind of road debris or accident prior to the vehicle catching fire. Tesla has sent a team to Tennessee to investigate the fire and plans to release details as soon as they are available.
Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.
