Tesla Model S Catches Fire While Charging

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A Tesla Model S burned to the ground at a Supercharger station in Norway yesterday. Take a look at the picture, there is almost nothing left of the car. :eek:

State news agency NRK reports (via Google translate) that no one was injured in the blaze. The owner of the car set it to charge and then left, and then at some point it began to burn, NRK reported. Users on Reddit’s r/teslamotors claim the Supercharger station was a “temporary” one. More photos of the blaze can be seen at the newspaper Fædrelandsvennen.
 
The batteries cover a larger area of the car than a gas tank...
 
that awkward moment when you just have liability insurance.


are these stations going to have fire suppressant systems like gas stations?
 
sleepeeg3 said:
To be fair...

Gasoline + fire = https://youtu.be/xcyBwbAbzRU

Both deadly explosive, but lithium more readily ignited.
Click to expand...

I don't know how readily that was but gasoline only needs a spark it won't self ignite lithium when hot enough will burn fairly quick or if enough of it is exposed to water to reach ignition that is what happened in the first piece it reacted to form hydrogen and lithium oxide too quick to reach ignition point the bigger piece was there long enough to do it.

Honestly the lithium is encased in a water tight case I don't fear li-ion. Additionally the charging station was not properly setup and was a temporary one so perhaps gen 1 equipment overcharged the cells. Honestly though we need better solutions that work in sub zero climates...
 
You guys may not remember the changeover to self-service gas stations in the 70's......before that people pumped your gas, checked your oil, cleaned your windshield, at least they did around here at all the service stations you went to.

They probably need to pay an attendant to monitor the power-transfer process more than is happening right now. At the very least, you get that peace of mind.

You can't charge up in 5 minutes like you can with gasoline, so the whole 'self service' concept here may be premature.
 
HeadRusch said:
You guys may not remember the changeover to self-service gas stations in the 70's......before that people pumped your gas, checked your oil, cleaned your windshield, at least they did around here at all the service stations you went to.

They probably need to pay an attendant to monitor the power-transfer process more than is happening right now. At the very least, you get that peace of mind.

You can't charge up in 5 minutes like you can with gasoline, so the whole 'self service' concept here may be premature.
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Honestly this time of year my guess as to why is thermal shock those batteries were likely frozen when he hit them with the fast charging unit when the controller should have suspended charging until the heater had warmed the batteries enough to be charged...
 
Love my Tesla Model S and would go online and order another one while it was burning if it catches fire ;)
 
So this charging station was "temporary", so who put it in? The guy who owns the car? Some random company? The local government? Tesla?

Either way I'm sure Tesla is going to give him a new car unless they find fault on their side, and the upside of all these issues, call them bug fixing, so people who can afford them can get all the bugs worked out, and if they actually make a working class affordable model hopefully they don't burn your house down :D
 
Must've hit 'great balls of fire' mode by accident. Just stick to 'insane' mode.
 
Wow, 1 Tesla out of 172,500 car fires. Wow the oil owned media really doesn't like Tesla.
 
CRaschNet said:
Wow, 1 Tesla out of 172,500 car fires. Wow the oil owned media really doesn't like Tesla.
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You mean the let Tesla off the hook for the battery fast change scam, media? Right. The only reason we're hearing about this is that its sourced from foreign media.
 
id bet it was do to cold batteries

tipos need to warmed to accept a full charge

this happened in Norway with subzero temperature
 
GaryJohnson said:
It's a good thing the lithium-ion batteries used in Tesla's cars contain a compound made from lithium and not pure lithium then, huh?

Haven't you heard how flammable hydrogen is? Better quit drinking H2O.
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Sure, the batteries are mixes of different metals, but that doesn't make the lithium ions any less flammable. Same technology that goes into phones, laptops, and hoverboards.

Boom!
Cell phone fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1n2ue9QmdM
Laptop fire: http://www.ksat.com/news/woman-burned-by-laptop-explosion
Hoverboard fire: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/01/man-films-video-of-hoverboard-bursting-into-flames
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Sure, the batteries are mixes of different metals, but that doesn't make the lithium ions any less flammable. Same technology that goes into phones, laptops, and hoverboards.

Boom!
Cell phone fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1n2ue9QmdM
Laptop fire: http://www.ksat.com/news/woman-burned-by-laptop-explosion
Hoverboard fire: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/01/man-films-video-of-hoverboard-bursting-into-flames
Click to expand...

And those type of batteries have been around for 30-40 years... A small percentage of these batteries have issues every year most of the time it is due to abuse of the cell.

the video posted exampling lithium fire is from a lithium primary battery it is heavily tarnished from being exposed to air and is a foil shape Lithium rechargeables are made similarly

You know what the new hotness in battery tech is though MAGNESIUM another metal that burns and reacts with water...
 
mnewxcv said:
that awkward moment when you just have liability insurance.


are these stations going to have fire suppressant systems like gas stations?
Click to expand...

Since the media went nuts over the first fires, they updated their warranty to cover fires like this.

The warranty is pretty broad and covers everything short of purposeful immolation.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Sure, the batteries are mixes of different metals, but that doesn't make the lithium ions any less flammable.
Click to expand...

Yes that does actually make it less flammable. Pure lithium is flammable whereas the lithium compounds most batteries are made from are actually not flammable. The compound in the batteries that's flammable is a non-lithium organic solvent.
 
So when supercharging, the coolant fan tends to spin up to cool the batteries. It sounds like maybe the fan failed and batteries overheated, but I'm not sure why the car did not stop charging. Could've also been the supercharger malfunctioned.

To all those people hating on a Tesla because of one fire that no one got hurt on, how many ICE cars catch fire that's not on the news? Plus many cars have also caught on fire at a gas
 
Sufu said:
So when supercharging, the coolant fan tends to spin up to cool the batteries. It sounds like maybe the fan failed and batteries overheated, but I'm not sure why the car did not stop charging. Could've also been the supercharger malfunctioned.

To all those people hating on a Tesla because of one fire that no one got hurt on, how many ICE cars catch fire that's not on the news? Plus many cars have also caught on fire at a gas
Click to expand...

Mobile phone fail. Damn that no edit function.

Meant to say many more cars catch on fire at gas stations, yet I don't see that on the news.
 
Sufu said:
Meant to say many more cars catch on fire at gas stations, yet I don't see that on the news.
Click to expand...

That's actually pretty rare, considering the large number of cars on the road and how many stop at a gas station in a given day.
 
Whatever. It's another fire that smart people will acknowledge is happening regularly and elmo monk lovers will pretend isn't a big deal and nothing is wrong because they get all spoogy and happy over their favorite "visionary" guy. Of course, they won't notice that the stupid car has HOLES in it specifically for fire departments to use to douse flames and if that's not a big enough hint that it happens often, the fact that the company had to recently change their warranty terms to encompass their cars bursting into flames should be a no-duh that something is sort of wrong. But nope, we're too busy loving up elmo monk, crediting him with everything great just like we all think that Steve Jobs is solely responsible for every product and piece of software Apple made since we can't understand that there's thousands of other people involved. Elmo Monk literally drew that car, mined the metal for the parts, forged them, wrote all the software and he puts them together by hand all by himself. Oh and when he's not busy doing that, he makes rockets that zoom to Mars the same way. What a manly man! I bet he's so manly that his hairy back has twigs and leftover bits of raw meat stuck in it from when he goes out hunting with a sharpened rock he personally turned into stone from sediment millions of years ago.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Whatever. It's another fire that smart people will acknowledge is happening regularly and elmo monk lovers will pretend isn't a big deal and nothing is wrong because they get all spoogy and happy over their favorite "visionary" guy. Of course, they won't notice that the stupid car has HOLES in it specifically for fire departments to use to douse flames and if that's not a big enough hint that it happens often, the fact that the company had to recently change their warranty terms to encompass their cars bursting into flames should be a no-duh that something is sort of wrong. But nope, we're too busy loving up elmo monk, crediting him with everything great just like we all think that Steve Jobs is solely responsible for every product and piece of software Apple made since we can't understand that there's thousands of other people involved. Elmo Monk literally drew that car, mined the metal for the parts, forged them, wrote all the software and he puts them together by hand all by himself. Oh and when he's not busy doing that, he makes rockets that zoom to Mars the same way. What a manly man! I bet he's so manly that his hairy back has twigs and leftover bits of raw meat stuck in it from when he goes out hunting with a sharpened rock he personally turned into stone from sediment millions of years ago.
Click to expand...

Wow that is a lot of hate. You mad cause you can't afford one of his cars? Think about this every single mistake he makes people like you and the news jump all over him to try to bash the company and products...

GM literally had nearly every modern vehicle they had on the road recalled. Toyota made the throttle in their vehicles so cheaply it was getting stuck at work and causing deaths...
But get this nobody cares about what mistakes they make sure the big issues like airbags that deploy randomly with higher than safe pressure get covered but I don't see people like you railing on them for it.
 
nutzo said:
That's actually pretty rare, considering the large number of cars on the road and how many stop at a gas station in a given day.
Click to expand...
Well, we don't know how rare or prevalent it is because he didn't provide any data in support of his implication that it happens more often than anyone thinks.

I've never seen a car spontaneously combust anywhere, not even at a gas station. Never read about it or heard about it, either. I'm inclined to think the reason I don't see it on the news is because it doesn't happen, not because it's too common to be newsworthy.
 
Lunas said:
Wow that is a lot of hate. You mad cause you can't afford one of his cars? Think about this every single mistake he makes people like you and the news jump all over him to try to bash the company and products...

GM literally had nearly every modern vehicle they had on the road recalled. Toyota made the throttle in their vehicles so cheaply it was getting stuck at work and causing deaths...
But get this nobody cares about what mistakes they make sure the big issues like airbags that deploy randomly with higher than safe pressure get covered but I don't see people like you railing on them for it.
Click to expand...

A car is an appliance and getting emo about it like you are when someone points out facts is like getting emo about a curling iron or a microwave. But besides that, the price bracket they're in is like for middle class people to go take out a loan from a bank drive around and working class bums to talk about with their friends while they drink beer and watch yell at a screen displaying a sporting event. Either way, it doesn't excuse the burst into flames problems and saying, "Well *sniffle-sniffle* other companies does it too so there! Hah!" is the same as saying, "Well, Google and Apple data mine so it's okay that Windows is doing it now!" If you can't see the totally obvious flaw in that kinda thinking, then you probably are the sort of person that should be begging a bank for a loan so you can get a house or a car so you can tote a note and make payments for the rest of your life.
 
Sufu said:
So when supercharging, the coolant fan tends to spin up to cool the batteries. It sounds like maybe the fan failed and batteries overheated, but I'm not sure why the car did not stop charging. Could've also been the supercharger malfunctioned.

To all those people hating on a Tesla because of one fire that no one got hurt on, how many ICE cars catch fire that's not on the news? Plus many cars have also caught on fire at a gas
Click to expand...

How many of those gas cars got the kind of positive press coverage the Telsa S got, virtually free commercials, above and beyond the normal car mag whose job it is to cover virtually every car. Sorry the car/company was turned into a celebrity. As such they get more attention when they stumble. If you don't want them to get undue negative press, you have to give up the undue positive press.

At the same time they aren't really getting much 'press' over this. Its one Norway site and a bunch of secondary car orient blogs/sites linking back to one news site.
https://news.google.com/news/story?...ved=0ahUKEwiFnYa_tIvKAhXBKyYKHfQYCycQqgIIJzAA

Are they suppose to bury the story absolutely and globally to make you happy?
 
mope54 said:
Well, we don't know how rare or prevalent it is because he didn't provide any data in support of his implication that it happens more often than anyone thinks.

I've never seen a car spontaneously combust anywhere, not even at a gas station. Never read about it or heard about it, either. I'm inclined to think the reason I don't see it on the news is because it doesn't happen, not because it's too common to be newsworthy.
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Well I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it'll have to do for purposes of "let me just let google find me something"
http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/vehicles
152,300 vehicles caught fire per year on average between 2006-2010, which translates as to one car every 17 hours, between 2003-2007 it was 287,000 per year, of course these are fires in general, but per mile a gasoline driven car is about 10x more likely to catch fire than a Tesla.

http://www.nfpa.org/research/report...s-and-mercantile/fires-at-us-service-stations
A little further digging with just gas fires finds about 2500 cars per year between 2004-2008, which going by the number of gas stations ever year you expect to see 1 out of ever 46 gas stations have a vehicle fire
 
sfsuphysics said:
Well I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it'll have to do for purposes of "let me just let google find me something"
http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/vehicles
152,300 vehicles caught fire per year on average between 2006-2010, which translates as to one car every 17 hours, between 2003-2007 it was 287,000 per year, of course these are fires in general, but per mile a gasoline driven car is about 10x more likely to catch fire than a Tesla.

http://www.nfpa.org/research/report...s-and-mercantile/fires-at-us-service-stations
A little further digging with just gas fires finds about 2500 cars per year between 2004-2008, which going by the number of gas stations ever year you expect to see 1 out of ever 46 gas stations have a vehicle fire
Click to expand...

Article above seems about right. There are more fires in an ICE vehicle than pure electric vehicles.

Per https://beta.finance.yahoo.com/news...tors.com/support/model-s-seat-belt-inspection

GM had a faulty ignition switch that caused FIRES in vehicles, and until this thing was exposed by the media, they did not issue any recalls. The sad part is they knew about it for a long time and tried to cover it up... http://fortune.com/2015/08/24/feinberg-gm-faulty-ignition-switch/

We should embrace new technology and innovations, not hate on them because they are too expensive for the mass consumer market.
 
zamaracrillio said:
They can afford it due to low car count so far.
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Not an excuse gm had to recall 30 million vehicles costing them 1.9 BILLION to fix issues that should not have been...

Why did they have to do this because 10-15 cars showed reproducible issues... that resulted in the death of a few people...

tesla has killed 0 but yet they still get this kinda shit thrown at them because they have only made a few thousand cars...
 
Know what I like about Tesla? Tesla will find out what happened and take steps to make sure it never happens again without the need for uncle Sam to force them to.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Well I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it'll have to do for purposes of "let me just let google find me something"
http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/vehicles
152,300 vehicles caught fire per year on average between 2006-2010, which translates as to one car every 17 hours, between 2003-2007 it was 287,000 per year, of course these are fires in general, but per mile a gasoline driven car is about 10x more likely to catch fire than a Tesla.

http://www.nfpa.org/research/report...s-and-mercantile/fires-at-us-service-stations
A little further digging with just gas fires finds about 2500 cars per year between 2004-2008, which going by the number of gas stations ever year you expect to see 1 out of ever 46 gas stations have a vehicle fire
Click to expand...
Well, as far as I can tell those are simply "fires" and not spontaneous combustion.

People are plain stupid, like the guy in the video in this thread who tried to burn a spider in his gas flap with his lighter and started the fire, or the woman who gathered a bunch of static electricity on her sweater and started the fire, or the person who was lighting a cigarette...and started the fire.

The pattern seems to be people's behavior starting the fires :rolleyes:
When you have a flammable liquid you should be careful around it. But stating that there are X amount of fires at gas stations is not the same as cars routinely combust while fueling as a function of the fueling like the Tesla did.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Well I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it'll have to do for purposes of "let me just let google find me something"
http://www.nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/vehicles
152,300 vehicles caught fire per year on average between 2006-2010, which translates as to one car every 17 hours, between 2003-2007 it was 287,000 per year, of course these are fires in general, but per mile a gasoline driven car is about 10x more likely to catch fire than a Tesla.

http://www.nfpa.org/research/report...s-and-mercantile/fires-at-us-service-stations
A little further digging with just gas fires finds about 2500 cars per year between 2004-2008, which going by the number of gas stations ever year you expect to see 1 out of ever 46 gas stations have a vehicle fire
Click to expand...
BTW, you got the second link correct (only 61% of the fires related to vehicles), but the first link you missed that only 2% of the fires were fuel line/tank related (3,046--roughly aligning with the 61% of vehicle related fires at service stations cited in the second link).
 
Seems to me that the owner just rolled over the warranty period!

do do... chaaaa! :D
 
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