Tesla tangles with regulators while touting fire safety of EV technology

Tesla is being thoroughly tested as the electric vehicle maker deals with the flare-up over three Model S battery pack fires. The viability of EVs in general has also come under media scrutiny as Tesla Chairman and CEO Elon Musk aggressively defends the technology’s safety aspects and Wall Street analysts contemplate the ups and downs of the company’s stock price.

Adding fuel to the fire is Tesla’s testy relationship with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is currently conducting an investigation into the Model S.

Two issues are under dispute between Musk and NHTSA Administrator David L. Strickland.

Musk contends that Tesla requested the NHTSA probe, a point that Strickland flatly denies, saying the agency alone makes those determinations. Previously Strickland had voiced objections to Musk’s interpretation of the Model S’ 5-star NHTSA crash rating. After Musk declared that the vehicle had in-fact earned an unprecedented, record-setting 5.4 stars, NHTSA responded by explicitly banning all automakers from touting any crash score above 5 stars, adding that every rating is expressed in whole numbers and all nameplates within a specific ratings figure are officially equal in performance.

A dispatch from NHTSA says, “Tesla’s claim was an example of the potential confusion and inaccuracy that could be caused by incorrect use of the 5-star ratings information in advertising and marketing statements.”

The differing opinions over which party initiated NHTSA’s fire-sparked investigation into the safety of 13,100 Model S vehicles sold in the U.S. is also contentious, according to David Shepardson of the Detroit News, quoting Strickland as emphasizing that “investigations are independent” and that automakers have never requested that they be investigated. “If a manufacturer asks me or asks the agency for a formal investigation, you’ve already made a determination that you may have a defect that imposes an unreasonable risk to safety,” Strickland says. “I don’t think that would ever happen.”

Shepardson goes on to report that Strickland publicly spoke of his “irritation with Musk” at an event in August: “On more than one occasion (Musk) has directly challenged me in one-on-one meetings on a number of issues regarding electric vehicles. He is very passionate. He has very strong views and on occasion I have had to explain to him, I am really not trying to mess up his business model. I am trying to do this to actually keep people safer.”

As the fire issue came to the fore in November, Strickland declined to comment on Musk, according to Shepardson, noting instead that “the only thing that we are really concerned about at the end of day is that Tesla meets the statutory obligations to make sure that its vehicles are safe.”

Any conclusions reached by NHTSA investigators are not expected to be released until later this year. Germany’s auto safety bureau has already exonerated the vehicle, finding that “no manufacturer-related defects could be found.” Musk insists that a recall is not necessary.

“Given that the incidence of fires in the Model S is far lower than combustion cars and that there have been no resulting injuries, this did not at first seem like a good use of NHTSA’s time compared to the hundreds of gasoline fire deaths per year that warrant their attention,” says Musk. “However, there is a larger issue at stake: If a false perception about the safety of electric cars is allowed to linger, it will delay the advent of sustainable transport and increase the risk of global climate change, with potentially disastrous consequences worldwide. That cannot be allowed to happen.”

Internal firewalls

Such scrapes with regulators aside, and apparently declining all interview requests, Musk has been vociferous in telling of Tesla’s engineering prowess, and the high level of safety that each vehicle delivers, in a series of emailed statements and blog posts on the company’s website.

While acknowledging that the new inroads into EV technology “naturally invites a high level of scrutiny,” Musk says that “there should also be some reasonable limit to how high such a standard should be, and we believe that this has been vastly exceeded in recent media coverage.”

Since the Model S went into production in 2012, Musk continues, there have been more than a quarter million gasoline-fueled car fires in the U.S., resulting in more than 400 deaths and some 1,200 serious injuries.

“However, the three Model S fires, which only occurred after very high-speed collisions and caused no serious injuries or deaths, received more national headlines than all 250,000-plus gasoline fires combined,” he asserts.

“The media coverage of Model S fires vs. gasoline car fires is disproportionate by several orders of magnitude, despite the latter actually being far more deadly. Reading the headlines, it is therefore easy to assume that the Tesla Model S and perhaps electric cars in general have a greater propensity to catch fire than gasoline cars,” says Musk, “when nothing could be further from the truth.”

Citing an overall figure of 19,000 Teslas on the road and so few fires, Musk says that “by this metric, you are more than four-and-a-half times more likely to experience a fire in a gasoline car than a Model S. Considering the odds in the absolute, you are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than experience even a non-injurious fire in a Tesla.”

A gas tank has 10 times more combustion energy than the Tesla’s battery array, according to Musk. “Moreover, the Model S battery pack also has internal firewalls between the 16 modules and a firewall between the battery pack and passenger compartment. This effectively limits the fire energy to a few percent of a gasoline car,” he says.

Because the two American fires were caused by road debris puncturing the undercarriage skid plate – the third fire, in Mexico, was sparked when the speeding, out-of-control car crashed into a stonewall – the company has beamed a computerized update to every air suspension system for greater ground clearance. Another software upgrade due to be activated in January 2014 gives the driver direct control over the air suspension ride heights.

A beefed-up warranty now covers any fire damage even if the driver is at fault.

Victims praise vehicle

The two Tesla owners in the U.S. who experienced the puncture-fires have both rallied to the automaker’s defense.

“I am still a big fan of your car and look forward to getting back into one,” writes driver Robert Carlson of the Seattle area in a blog post on Tesla’s site. Pointing out that “the car performed very well under such an extreme test,” he further points out that “I was thinking this was bound to happen, just not to me. But now it is out there and probably gets a sigh of relief as a test and risk issue – this ‘doomsday’ event has now been tested, and the design and engineering works.”

Fire victim Dr. Juris Shibayama of Tennessee is even more effusive in his praise as he recounts in a blog post what happened when his car struck a trailer hitch lying on the roadway: “About 30-45 seconds later, there was a warning on the dashboard display saying, ‘Car needs service. Car may not restart.’ I continued to drive, hoping to get home. About one minute later, the message on the dashboard display read, ‘Please pull over safely. Car is shutting down.’ I was able to fully control the car the entire time and safely pulled off the left shoulder on the side of the road.”

Shibayama additionally observes that “had I not been in a Tesla, that object could have punched through the floor and caused me serious harm.” The event unfolded over a five-minute period. “During this time, the car warned me that it was damaged and instructed me to pull over. I never felt as though I was in any imminent danger,” he says. “While driving after I hit the object until I pulled over, the car performed perfectly, and it was a totally controlled situation. There was never a point at which I was anywhere even close to any flames.”

Being able to retrieve his belongings from the car as firefighters doused the flames without incident was another plus.

“This experience does not in any way make me think that the Tesla Model S is an unsafe car,” says Shibayama. “I would buy another one in a heartbeat.”

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