Tesla Model S catches fire, thanks to punctured battery
For what looks to be the first time, a Tesla Model S engulfed in flames. The incident happened earlier this week in Seattle, Washington, and luckily, one intrepid smartphone user caught the situation on his smartphone for us to gawk over.
“That’s a Tesla, dude,” one of the passengers exclaimed in the video, once he realised $59,000+ was sitting in front of him burning. "I can feel the heat in here."
Once the video hit popular autoblogs and subsequently spread to mainstream outlets, Tesla's stock fell almost 6 per cent. In turn Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, became vocal about the situation. He claims if this was a gas vehicle that caught fire, the situation would have been much worse.
"It is important to note that the fire in the battery was contained to a small section near the front by the internal firewalls built into the pack structure," Musk writes. "At no point did fire enter the passenger compartment."
It is believed the fire began after the Tesla struck a large metal object that fell off a semi-truck on the highway. "Had a conventional gasoline car encountered the same object on the highway, the result could have been far worse."
The owner whose Tesla caught fire agrees with Musk. "I agree that the car performed very well under such an extreme test," Robert Carlson writes. "The batteries went through a controlled burn which the internet images really exaggerates." The company offered Carlson a white loaner Tesla until his is presumably covered by insurance.