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!

Electric Car Catches Fire... Again

Not "catches fire" as in "selling like hotcakes". No, they mean literally catching fire! As in "Car-B-Que"!


Chevy Re-volt

BARKHAMSTED,Conn. -- A hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt believed to have sparked an overnight blaze in a garage in Barkhamsted last week, reignited again on Monday.

The state fire marshal's office is investigating how the electric car parked at a Center Hill Road home caught fire Monday morning.

Last week, homeowners Storm Connors and his wife, Dee, woke up to the sound of a smoke alarm around 4 a.m.

The couple's garage, where they parked their new Chevrolet Volt hybrid, was on fire.

These cars are hot, hot hot!

...On Monday morning, firefighters were called back to the home when the car caught fire again.

Electric cars are soooo popular! This can only help! Not.

On a related note, I was driving up I-5 this afternoon when I came up on a trailer being towed up the highway. It was for an electric car company, whose name I shall not mention, but they were touting these zero emission vehicles as a way to "green your fleet". Which part of their electric fleet do you think was pulling this trailer?


(Ford F-350, shown less than actual size)

Update: For those of you with memories like mine, they take a little jogging. Another infamous electric car fire cost Neil Young about $850,000