Hot Dog! A Car-Be-Que!

We here at Proof Positive try to document the number of electric cars which self immolate. So far, the incidents have been plentiful.

A Tesla Model S Plaid erupted in flames as the owner was driving down the road on Tuesday, attorneys for the man said, briefly trapping him in the car after the electronically activated doors would not open.

Trapped inside the burning car? Well, that's a new one! Apparently this all happened the weekend after he picked up his new hot car!

"We Have Ways of Making You Talk!"

Stolen Tesla Car-B-Que in So Cal

I know! It's hardly news any more! But, down in southern California, some enterprising soul decided that, perhaps, an Obamaphone, Obamacare and unemployment were not nearly enough, and the world owed this fellow an electric car!


Fiery crash involving stolen Tesla shuts down La Brea Avenue
This stolen car was being pursued by the police when it hit a light pole, split in two, whereupon half the car caught fire and the other half impacted a building and wedged itself between two walls.

I don't know about you, but when I read the words "fiery crash" and "split in two" describing an automobile accident, my Spidey sense starts to tingle! Now I realize that there were extenuating circumstances here, namely a high speed chase in a stolen car. Still, it's not hard to imagine someone driving on the freeway at a goodly percentage of that speed, maybe blowing a tire, slicing, dicing and sautéing their shiny new Tesla around a stationary object, or shredding itself on the nearest sixteen wheeler.

We have noted the propensity of electric cars to catch fire here, here, and here. That doesn't even count the retrofits, like Neil Young's famous car-B-que.

Caveat emptor.


An atomic wedgie that just won't quit!
Cross posted at LCR

Get Your Tesla Model S - They're Hot! They're Smokin'!

No, seriously. They're smoking...

Meanwhile, another Model S electric car caught fire Wednesday near Smyrna, Tenn., following a crash. This was the third Model S to have caught fire in the last five weeks. One burned near Seattle and another in Mexico. Both cars were in crashes and the fires injured no one.

Normally, car fires are not significant events that influence investors. There are about 150,000 annually, according to the National Fire Protection Assn. However, safety officials have been tracking fires in electric cars, as well as computers and other equipment, out of concern that the lithium-ion battery systems might be fire-prone.

Three in five weeks? Out of a relatively small number of cars on the road? This cannot bode well for Tesla. In fact, their stock has taken a hit on the news of this latest car-B-que.

Tesla Motors shares continued to fall Thursday as the automaker confirmed a third fire in one of its high-end electric cars and a major auto reviewer pointed out problems with its Model S luxury hatchback.

The 9%, or $13.40, decline in mid-morning trading to $137.76 followed a 15% plunge in the shares Wednesday after the automaker said limited supplies of batteries were hampering sales and that it was spending heavily on research and development to design new models. Tesla shares have been on a run for most of the year, rising about 400% before this reversal.

But, tke heart! If your electric car catches fire, you can always invite Al Gore over for some S'mores!

What Do Electric Cars and Bricks Have in Common?

Bricks maneuver better without a battery!

In driving, there's a maxim about driving at night: You should never overdrive your headlights. That means you shouldn't drive faster than you can see to stop. The supposedly well intentioned advocates of electric car technology are overdriving their headlights.

Tesla Motors' lineup of all-electric vehicles — its existing Roadster, almost certainly its impending Model S, and possibly its future Model X — apparently suffer from a severe limitation that can largely destroy the value of the vehicle. If the battery is ever totally discharged, the owner is left with what Tesla describes as a "brick": a completely immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed down the street. The only known remedy is for the owner to pay Tesla approximately $40,000 to replace the entire battery. Unlike practically every other modern car problem, neither Tesla's warranty nor typical car insurance policies provide any protection from this major financial loss.

Teslas start at about $49,000. Granted, it is a vehicle more likely to be purchased by the well-to-do. But, imagine the joy of anyone coming back from a vacation or business trip, and discovering that they had forgotten to plug the car in, or someone accidentally unplugged the cord, or a breaker tripped and their $50 to $100K sports car now needs a $40,000 battery and a tow truck or it will never move again. (Unless, maybe up on cinderblocks, in an upscale version of Rio Linda?) And good luck finding one in stock at the local Sears or Pep Boys! Figure on it being in the shop for a while.

This is technology not yet ready for prime time. Some electric cars are little more than street legal golf carts. Others, like the Teslas, are poised to become lawn sculptures. When the technology is ready, people will buy more and more of them, and that will make them cheaper to mass produce. (Think big screen TVs.) But, in the meantime, are government subsidies of overpriced electric cars the wisest use of our limited resources? I sincerely doubt it.

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.