Tesla Steps Up Production

[don]

Re: Fire

When I was working on boomers and fast attack boats the battery compartment was somewhere to avoid. Batteries roughly the size of a phone booth were sat close together in the battery well - I can't recall their number but it had to be upwards of 40 or 50. They were tied together with flat, heavy copper busing, that was taped with the exception of the contact points. You think it's dark in a submarine - try the battery well when the shore lights fail.

[shiny!]

Re: Fire

Thanks, EJ.

[don]

Re: More Fires

Tesla is down 3% premarket at last check for one simple reason: the one shown on the photo below. This is the third reported car fire in the past month. So much for that "best safety rating of any car ever tested" - perhaps it really is time to inquire just what the NHTSA kickbacks were in order to go with that "objective" determination?

[don]

and now comes . . . the lawyers

In a fitting finale to a week Tesla Motors executives would rather forget, a law firm announced Friday that it had filed a class-action suit against the electric car maker for allegedly misleading investors over the fire risk posed by the company’s Model S sedan.


Photo: AP/Tennessee Highway Patrol

The firm of Pomerantz Grossman Hufford Dahlstrom & Gross accused Tesla of making misleading statements about the car’s safety, in spite of “undisclosed puncture and fire risks” that the law firm attributes to “material defects” in the Model S battery pack.

On Wednesday, a Model S caught fire on a Tennessee freeway after striking a metal towing hitch lying in the road. The hitch punctured the electric car’s battery pack, which lies beneath the floorboards and is protected from the road by a steel shield. It was the third Model S fire in six weeks, and it helped drive down the company’s stock.

Reviewers have given the Model S high marks for safety, and the car scored higher on tests from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration than any other U.S. vehicle. But the new suit alleges that the car “suffered from material defects which caused the battery pack to ignite and erupt in flames under certain driving conditions.”

The first Model S fire, on October 1, happened after a driver on a freeway outside Seattle struck a curved piece of metal, which punched through the plate protecting the battery pack. The second fire, which happened in Mexico, involved a driver racing through a roundabout, striking two walls and finally hitting a tree.

Pomerantz seeks to represent shareholders who bought Tesla stock between May 10 of this year and Nov. 6, the day of the third fire. May 10 roughly marked the start of a spectacular run-up in Tesla’s share price. The stock closed May 10 at $76.76 and peaked in late September at $193.37. It closed Friday at $137.95.

Tesla, based in Palo Alto, declined comment on the suit Friday. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Pomerantz specializes in corporate, securities and antitrust suits. The firm on Friday also sued J.C. Penney, claiming the retailer tried to hide its shaky finances from investors.

– David R. Baker

[GRG55]

Re: and now comes . . . the lawyers

and now comes . . . the lawyers

Maybe every consumer product in the USA, from yogurt to yo-yo's should come with a mandatory placard stating "This product can maim or kill you..."

[EJ]

Re: and now comes . . . the lawyers

and now comes . . . the lawyers


Maybe every consumer product in the USA, from yogurt to yo-yo's should come with a mandatory placard stating "This product can maim or kill you..."

TSLA was a momentum stock. As long as Musk could keep the story exciting then the momentum could be maintained.

He ran out of stories in late Sept. and the stock peaked in early Oct. around 193. Without fresh inputs to instill confidence, such as Musk's promise to personally guarantee resale value, the stock started to drift down. Confidence already faltering, the battery fire stories appeared and these sent the stock into a tail spin. With confidence lost, everything about the company will be called into question.

Can TSLA ever regain momentum to rise above 193 again? It's possible but I've never seen it happen.

Once the cocoon of confidence is broken the tendency is for a momentum stock to fall as TSLA has since Oct. in a series of gradual steps punctuated by sharp corrections on bad news.

TSLA will fall to a level to reflect a rational market cap for a company that depends on high net worth consumers,
to a fraction of the 1/3 of GM's market cap the company once enjoyed.

[don]

Re: and now comes . . . the lawyers

Nice to see that in the productive sector gravity still applies - with exceptions, of course!

FIRE, no longer Earth bound, floats above it all . . . .

[Polish_Silver]

Tesla vs Statistics

Is the Tesla doing worse than other cars? There seem to be enough T's out there to gather statistics on flammability. At least the idea of batteries as an ideal power source is getting its due. Anything that stores energy is a fire hazard.

[shiny!]

Re: Tesla vs Statistics

Is the Tesla doing worse than other cars? There seem to be enough T's out there to gather statistics on flammability. At least the idea of batteries as an ideal power source is getting its due. Anything that stores energy is a fire hazard.

With so few on the road, to have these fires happening does not bode well. I've struck plenty of objects in the road and never had my gasoline-powered car burst into flames. Tesla may prove to be the new Pinto. Even the appearance of being a Pinto will be its death knell.

[Forrest]

Re: Tesla vs Statistics

With so few on the road, to have these fires happening does not bode well. I've struck plenty of objects in the road and never had my gasoline-powered car burst into flames. Tesla may prove to be the new Pinto. Even the appearance of being a Pinto will be its death knell.

+1

[Polish_Silver]

Cars burning

With so few on the road, to have these fires happening does not bode well. I've struck plenty of objects in the road and never had my gasoline-powered car burst into flames. Tesla may prove to be the new Pinto. Even the appearance of being a Pinto will be its death knell.

In the mid 1980's I saw a crashed car burning like a torch. But that's the only one I can remember seeing like that. It's actually surprising how few auto collisions result in fire injuries.

[GRG55]

Re: and now comes . . . the lawyers

Nice to see that in the productive sector gravity still applies - with exceptions, of course!

FIRE, no longer Earth bound, floats above it all . . . .

But gravity is inescapable, even for FIRE, which is ever so slowly but inexorably being dragged down out of its lofty orbital path.

Much like a satellite that has run out of fuel...

GOCE satellite set to crash down to Earth in coming days, but experts aren't sure where it will land

November 6, 2013 9:44 PM

A European space satellite that has been mapping the Earth’s gravitational field is set to crash down to Earth in the coming days, and it could provide a “real treat” for space watchers.

But could GOCE (pronounced “GO-chay”), which is set to make an “uncontrolled entry” into the atmosphere, present a risk to anyone on the ground?

“For the most part, these uncontrolled re-entries are the norm,” Space.com’s Tariq Malik told Yahoo News in a phone interview. “It’s not so much that we’ve been lucky to not get hit by one as it is the planet is so big.”

The European Space Agency does not know exactly when GOCE, short for Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, will crash to Earth, and experts there don't know exactly where it will land. But the general consensus is that it will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere sometime between Friday and Monday...

[don]

Re: and now comes . . . the lawyers

Si, but ever so slowly . . .

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Cars burning

In the mid 1980's I saw a crashed car burning like a torch. But that's the only one I can remember seeing like that. It's actually surprising how few auto collisions result in fire injuries.

I was hit in 2005 in a late model vehicle by another late model compact vehicle.....perpendicular impact speed(I was t-boned) would have been less than 50kph.

Both vehicles burned out completely and were on fire end to end within 2-3 minutes.

One of the things I'm keen to try in the near future is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gZ8FHEUCl8

Trying to start an emergency fire with a lithium phone battery for some course modules I teach.

I'm guessing that this is what happens with Tesla's lithium car batteries just scaled up considerably.

Scary thought.

Even worse is the thought of a lithium battery cooking off in a 787 transpacific.

[shiny!]

Re: Cars burning

I was hit in 2005 in a late model vehicle by another late model compact vehicle.....perpendicular impact speed(I was t-boned) would have been less than 50kph.

Both vehicles burned out completely and were on fire end to end within 2-3 minutes.

One of the things I'm keen to try in the near future is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gZ8FHEUCl8

Trying to start an emergency fire with a lithium phone battery for some course modules I teach.

I'm guessing that this is what happens with Tesla's lithium car batteries just scaled up considerably.

Scary thought.

Even worse is the thought of a lithium battery cooking off in a 787 transpacific.

Interesting video!

What causes lithium batteries to spontaneously combust for no apparent reason? It happens with batteries in cellphones, laptops, golf carts...