Teslas catch fire in garage

[Anonymous]

Anyone else concerned about this?

Apparently EVs have a history of unexplained battery fires. And apparently you're not supposed to charge them over night?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/04/tesla-fire/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0Nmawf78n1NY5542kWtSNnGtuFD--dL9ZT-O-fm0HGV62gnoRDrDmRU50

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else concerned about this?

Apparently EVs have a history of unexplained battery fires. And apparently you're not supposed to charge them over night?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/04/tesla-fire/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0Nmawf78n1NY5542kWtSNnGtuFD--dL9ZT-O-fm0HGV62gnoRDrDmRU50

I thought the whole idea was to charge these things overnight, taking advantage of lower time-of-use electric rates. Yikes.

[Anonymous]

My husband was making rumblings about buying an electric vehicle. I showed him the article and he agreed maybe we aren’t ready to have that in our townhouse garage under our living space.

[Anonymous]

“ Including gas-powered cars, the National Fire Protection Association says there were 189,500 overall highway vehicle fires in the United States in 2019, encompassing passenger and other types of road vehicles.
”

“ Tesla in the past has argued that its cars are a tenth as likely to catch fire as gas-powered vehicles, drawing on data from the National Fire Protection Association and U.S. Federal Highway Administration.”

Nobody talks about their gas powered car catching fire but anytime an electric does, especially a Tesla, it is front page news the world over.

[Anonymous]

The guy who’s car is the centerpiece of the story? He works for the gas and oil industry.

From his website:
“ Vindum Engineering is fortunate to include in its list of clients all the major oil and gas companies”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“ Including gas-powered cars, the National Fire Protection Association says there were 189,500 overall highway vehicle fires in the United States in 2019, encompassing passenger and other types of road vehicles.
”

“ Tesla in the past has argued that its cars are a tenth as likely to catch fire as gas-powered vehicles, drawing on data from the National Fire Protection Association and U.S. Federal Highway Administration.”

Nobody talks about their gas powered car catching fire but anytime an electric does, especially a Tesla, it is front page news the world over.

The problem is the intensity of the fire. I have a friend whose gasoline powered car caught fire in their garage and it burned their attached garage. The firemen came and put it out and the house was fine. The Tesla fire I read about was so hot that the firemen couldn’t get any closer than the street and it burned the entire house to a crisp.

[Anonymous]

This seems like the bigger version of the laptop catching fire. So it definitely happens but overall pretty rare. The Tesla app allows you to automatically turn off the charging after a certain time or percentage, so you never need to let it get to full charge overnight. The article wasn’t entirely clear but it made it sound as if battery overcharging was part of the problem.
I admit I would feel somewhat more comfortable if the US would incentivize production of batteries here in the US. Currently I think they are all made in China.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This seems like the bigger version of the laptop catching fire. So it definitely happens but overall pretty rare. The Tesla app allows you to automatically turn off the charging after a certain time or percentage, so you never need to let it get to full charge overnight. The article wasn’t entirely clear but it made it sound as if battery overcharging was part of the problem.
I admit I would feel somewhat more comfortable if the US would incentivize production of batteries here in the US. Currently I think they are all made in China.

In most instances, there also was previously unknown damage to the undercarriage of the car - like they ran over something, it pierced the battery, and they never stopped to check it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“ Including gas-powered cars, the National Fire Protection Association says there were 189,500 overall highway vehicle fires in the United States in 2019, encompassing passenger and other types of road vehicles.
”

“ Tesla in the past has argued that its cars are a tenth as likely to catch fire as gas-powered vehicles, drawing on data from the National Fire Protection Association and U.S. Federal Highway Administration.”

Nobody talks about their gas powered car catching fire but anytime an electric does, especially a Tesla, it is front page news the world over.

Sure but most of those gas powered engines are old cars in poor repair so not shockikg; these are almost new cars bursting into white hot flames

[Anonymous]

This DOES worry me b/c my DD's bedroom is above the garage where DH would like to charge up the Tesla he wants to buy.

It may be rare, but as the PP pointed out, the type of fire these things create is so intense that it cannot be put out. All the advice by ALL the EV manufacturers to never charge the cars inside is just not realistic.

If you can afford to buy an EV (and especially a Tesla -- but really ANY EV), then you probably also have enough money to have a house that has a garage where you plan to install your high capacity outlet where you plan to CHARGE your new EV. Nobody buys an EV with the expectation of leaving it outside all the time. People buy them to charge them overnight in their garages (where the electricity is).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This DOES worry me b/c my DD's bedroom is above the garage where DH would like to charge up the Tesla he wants to buy.

It may be rare, but as the PP pointed out, the type of fire these things create is so intense that it cannot be put out. All the advice by ALL the EV manufacturers to never charge the cars inside is just not realistic.

If you can afford to buy an EV (and especially a Tesla -- but really ANY EV), then you probably also have enough money to have a house that has a garage where you plan to install your high capacity outlet where you plan to CHARGE your new EV. Nobody buys an EV with the expectation of leaving it outside all the time. People buy them to charge them overnight in their garages (where the electricity is).

It's called a cord. I leave my ev outside and pull the cord to charge it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This DOES worry me b/c my DD's bedroom is above the garage where DH would like to charge up the Tesla he wants to buy.

It may be rare, but as the PP pointed out, the type of fire these things create is so intense that it cannot be put out. All the advice by ALL the EV manufacturers to never charge the cars inside is just not realistic.

If you can afford to buy an EV (and especially a Tesla -- but really ANY EV), then you probably also have enough money to have a house that has a garage where you plan to install your high capacity outlet where you plan to CHARGE your new EV. Nobody buys an EV with the expectation of leaving it outside all the time. People buy them to charge them overnight in their garages (where the electricity is).

It's called a cord. I leave my ev outside and pull the cord to charge it

All my N Arlington neighbors in $1.5+ million homes charge their Tesla's outside

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This DOES worry me b/c my DD's bedroom is above the garage where DH would like to charge up the Tesla he wants to buy.

It may be rare, but as the PP pointed out, the type of fire these things create is so intense that it cannot be put out. All the advice by ALL the EV manufacturers to never charge the cars inside is just not realistic.

If you can afford to buy an EV (and especially a Tesla -- but really ANY EV), then you probably also have enough money to have a house that has a garage where you plan to install your high capacity outlet where you plan to CHARGE your new EV. Nobody buys an EV with the expectation of leaving it outside all the time. People buy them to charge them overnight in their garages (where the electricity is).

It's called a cord. I leave my ev outside and pull the cord to charge it

All my N Arlington neighbors in $1.5+ million homes charge their Tesla's outside

With fires as hot as described in the article I read, I’m not sure that would be far enough away to not burn the house.