Hollywood actress' Tesla car caught fire, electric car battery safety questioned again

On Friday, June 16th, US time, McCormack, an American actress who once starred in the famous political drama West Wing, posted a short video of a burning Tesla Model S sedan on Twitter.

The video shows a Model S parked on the side of the road, with other vehicles in front and behind. Flames appeared at the bottom of the Model S, which was where the battery pack was laid, judging from the height. The smoke was very obvious. The fire truck arrived and put out the flames, and there were no casualties.

The video was shot in Los Angeles, California, USA. The burning Model S was parked on Santa Monica Street. It was reported that no one was performing any operation at the time and the car burned on its own.

"This is what happened to my husband's car today," McCormack wrote on Twitter. "Thank God for the two kind couples who alerted my husband that his car was on fire and quickly helped him escape the vehicle. Thank God again that my 3 children were not in the car and are safe."

Tesla's press center responded with an email 24 hours later: "This is a very unusual event. We are investigating the incident to find out the truth. Our initial investigation shows that although the fire is visually shocking, thanks to our excellent engineering design, a fire prevention mechanism perfectly protects the car's passenger compartment after the battery pack burns."

This again raises the question: Are electric cars more likely to catch fire?

First, let's take a brief look at Tesla's battery layout.

Tesla's power battery pack is laid out as a whole at the bottom of the car, surrounded by a very strong alloy frame and equipped with anti-collision buffer components and a cooling system at the bottom. Several recent Tesla accidents have caused the battery pack to burn, which has also caused many people to question Tesla's battery layout.

From a design perspective, this layout is very smart and beneficial to vehicle dynamics. It can greatly reduce the unsprung mass, improve the dynamic response of the vehicle, and is particularly beneficial to suspension feedback and lowering the vehicle's center of gravity.

However, it is incredible that spontaneous combustion could occur without any operation or extreme collision. The electrolyte solution of the power battery will become unstable under high-speed collision. If punctured, it will cause a violent oxidation reaction and easily cause a fire.

Compared with gasoline vehicles, which need to meet the conditions of leakage, fire source, temperature, etc., electric vehicles seem to be more likely to cause combustion. However, the excellent battery pack design and the installation of the smart internal circulation cooling system have kept Tesla's battery pack at the world's leading safety level. Short circuits, punctures, discharges caused by circuit aging and overload, and damage to the DCDC system may still be the culprit of this spontaneous combustion accident.

We still need to wait for further investigation by relevant departments for the specific situation.

Tesla said in a report released last year that "based on data from the National Fire Protection Association and the Federal Highway Administration, Tesla vehicles are 10 times less likely to burn than gasoline-powered vehicles."

But there is a mathematical problem here. The only thing that can be found in the above data is the number of spontaneous combustion incidents. So taking into account the time, Tesla has only been established for ten years, and the total number of cars it has sold is less than the total number of cars sold by Toyota alone in one year.

The sales history of fuel vehicles can be traced back to more than a hundred years. It is obvious that the calculation of the combustion rate based on such a huge base difference (a difference of millions) is not convincing at all.

Ternary lithium batteries are not flammable materials, and their burning rate is much lower than gasoline. Since the battery pack is composed of countless independent battery packs connected in series, their combustion is easier to control.

Nevertheless, battery fires are difficult to extinguish and require special treatment because they involve rapid oxidation reactions and leaks of chemicals, so all electric vehicle manufacturers, including Tesla, must undergo emergency training to deal with battery fires.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has already started the investigation but has not yet reached any conclusion.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.