The premise of this AXA Insurance coverage check was easy. EVs have batteries may catch fireplace within the occasion of a crash, and AXA needed to demo this. Within the video, you possibly can see a yellow Mannequin S being launched right into a ramp, flipping over, touchdown on its roof, and bursting into flame. However how did they do that?
First, AXA eliminated the battery within the Tesla Mannequin S. Wait a minute, you say. How are you going to demo a battery fireplace if you happen to take away the battery? You set pyrotechnics inside, in fact! This manner, the demonstration was “secure” and AXA may very well be ensured “battery fireplace” would certainly occur.
“For security causes, it was not doable to ignite an actual battery fireplace at an occasion with round 500 individuals, which is why a hearth with pyrotechnics was staged.”
The issue with that is the video has now unfold on-line with headlines like “Insurance coverage firm proves Tesla battery catches fireplace!” or “Watch a Tesla battery burst into flame!” With out the correct context, viewers may simply be fooled into pondering that Teslas simply catch fireplace.
What’s loopy about this complete scenario is that with out the BS pulled by AXA, it will have been fairly difficult to display how a Tesla can burst into flame. The fact of the matter is electrical autos are 60 instances much less more likely to catch fireplace than a gasoline powered automotive, and 139 instances much less doubtless than a hybrid.
Had AXA truly launched a Tesla Mannequin S with a battery pack, there was a reasonably good probability that no fireplace would have occurred. Additionally, the Tesla battery pack provides the Mannequin S a particularly low middle of gravity, so flipping the automotive would have been subsequent to inconceivable, until the battery was eliminated. Merely put, the The Mannequin S used on this “demo” may have embarrassed AXA by both refusing to flip or catch on fireplace if it truly had its battery within the automotive.
A staged battery fireplace in a Tesla Mannequin S and not using a battery. I can virtually scent a lawsuit from Tesla coming.
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