Tesla is VERY Protective About Their Batteries
Tesla made the news in 2013 because some Model S sedans caught fire following encounters with road debris. The company announced this morning that following investigations all Model S cars sold from now on will be equipped with underbody protective plates, and that older models can have the same plates installed free of charge.
The CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, was interviewed by Medium.com. He explained that his business has suffered from a lot of bad publicity over two incidents where a Model S burst into flames following the puncture of the batteries by road debris. He says he is saddened that those two incidents received more media coverage than the 200,000 fires that occurred in gasoline-powered cars in 2013. The risk of fire in a Tesla is 1 in 8000, which is about five times lower than a regular vehicle.
But, to ensure the safety of his customers, Tesla developed a three-layer protective plate for the Model S.
The first one is an aluminium bar designed to absorb the initial impact of the object and to force it upward, to deflect it from the batteries.
Next, the debris will hit the second plate, a quarter-inch titanium plate. This material is extremely resilient, and is normally used in aeronautics. This plate has one job: shatter and destroy the foreign object.
If the object is still intact after all this, it then hits the third plate: a shallow-angle aluminium surface designed to allow the broken pieces of the object to be safely ejected out the back of the car. In the unlikely event that the foreign object is still in one piece (at this point you have probably run over an indestructible, immovable force), the aluminium plate acts as a sliding tray, lifting the whole car over the object.
The protective system is very efficient in terms of safety, but it doesn't affect drivability or handling. The car's range also stays pretty much the same, with a 0.1% drop.
The modification was done first and foremost to better protect the occupants of the vehicle, that goes without saying. But why make is so strong? Tesla wanted to prevent all possible arguments by people who were trying to shoot the electric car down.
Nice job Mr. Musk!
