“We were able to contact the driver quickly and are pleased that he is safe. This was a significant accident where the car was traveling at such a high speed that it smashed through a concrete wall and then hit a large tree, yet the driver walked away from the car with no permanent injury. He is appreciative of the safety and performance of the car and has asked if we can expedite delivery of his next Model S.”
I think Tesla should decline the order. No sense enabling repeat drunk driving that could cause yet more damage and bad publicity.
I see this two ways: 1) As an EV proponent, I think this is much to do about nothing considering the volatility of gasoline and the amount of daily/yearly ICE fires. But on the other hand.... 2) I've haven't seen any reports of fires from a Volt, PIP, Leaf, or Energi in the wild. None of which have the skateboard battery design.
250,000 cars a year burst into flames and nobody cares. As for #2, don't you recall that the Volt was actually recalled by GM because of a battery cooling fault condition that could cause fires. A couple homes burned with Volts in them, although personally I think it had to do with their poor house wiring. But that is the same as blaming the Tesla for driving over a giant spike of metal or crashing through a concrete wall. I only know of 1 burned out Leaf, and that was actually because of the wild forest fires a couple miles away from me. I think the media picked the image up because the pack was basically intact and OK while the rest of the car was a burnt out shell along with 300+ other homes.
As I said, no Volt has burned "in the wild" from an accident. Nor any of the other non-skateboard designs. We seem to be in agreement on both of my points so I'm somewhat confused by your reply.
Fortunately, one grisly local case went to sentencing today: Judge ignores plea deal; driver gets 4 years in deadly crash I'm watching for several other local car fire fatalities to reach convictions and sentencings.
This journalist ... does he have a problem with the ICE he's driving around with what ... 10-20 gallons of gas ? .... Nope. Each gallon contains the energy of 7 sticks of dynamite. I got your crispy right here. .
Yet another FOD strike and flaming Tesla: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2013/11/07/now-tesla-really-has-a-headache-someone-grab-the-tylenol/
I think Model S is too low and too heavy. A metal object that goes under is going to create a lot of force.
