Explains the fire-related issues of its electric car and describes future action plans

The following is the main content of Musk blog:

We created Tesla ten years ago, and now our goal has remained unchanged: to accelerate the birth of sustainable vehicles and to launch a mass-market electric vehicle to the market as soon as possible. If we had been able to produce such a car earlier, we would have produced it long ago. But for an entrepreneurial enterprise that has never produced a car and has no economies of scale and only one technology, it is unlikely that an electric car will be produced early. Regardless of the appearance, our first product is actually very expensive, so we decided to make a sports car first, because it seems that such a car has more opportunities to compete with petrol-powered vehicles.

I suspect that this may be misunderstood. Tesla thought the market lacked a sports car for the rich, so I developed Tesla's "three-step" plan, which allowed the company to produce cars that were market-attractive and affordable to consumers.

To achieve this, we must achieve a major breakthrough in technology, so we naturally have a high level of rigorous scrutiny of the relevant situation. As the standards of new technology are higher than before, such rigorous scrutiny is also very reasonable. But we should also make some reasonable restrictions on how high the standards should be, and we think that a lot of the media have been firing too much recently.

What is the fire hazard in Tesla Model S compared to the traditional petrol-powered cars?

Since Model S Auto entered the mass production stage last year, only 250,000 gasoline-powered car fires have occurred in the United States, killing more than 400 people and injuring more than 1200 people, but so far only three Model S cars have caught fire, and only after a severe impact, Nor did it cause casualties. Obviously, the media coverage of this is not true, especially the unprofessional media, is out of context, not from the actual data.

In fact, the fuel tank of the car powered car has about 10 times times the energy of our battery pack, in addition, the Model S battery's 16 modules also placed the internal firewall, in addition to the battery pack and passenger seat between the firewall, which effectively limits the fire transmission, The probability of this fire being transmitted is only a few percent of the petrol electric vehicle.

What about security?

Our biggest concern is not the safety of cars, after all, the problem can be easily solved, we are most worried about the safety of customers and their families. According to the records of Model S cars so far, accidents caused by battery fires have not caused casualties, and other power types of cars? This record is long enough for us to be very proud of the performance of Model S cars. U.S. government agency data also show that the Model S accident in the security of customers better than any other power type of cars.

More action in the future:

We believe that the present evidence is quite sufficient to show that there are no cars on the road that are more secure than Model S. We will take the following three specific actions in the future.

First, we will update the air cushion in time to help better clear the barrier on the highway, which will certainly reduce the risk of damage to the bottom of the car, not to improve safety. Theoretically, Model s car fire damage probability is very small, the current accident personnel mortality rate is still zero. In addition, we will update a software next January, which will help the pilot to better control the air cushion.

Second, we have asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to launch an investigation into the fire accident as soon as possible. If the investigation can identify some of the factors that can further truly enhance passenger safety, we will immediately make improvements in the new car and replace it free of charge to all the cars that have been produced, which we find almost impossible. Because Model S train accident probability is much lower than flammable vehicles, and Model S fire accident did not cause casualties, so the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Committee investigation may be futile. However, there is also a greater risk that, if the survey produces erroneous arguments about electric cars, this could lead to a delay in the birth of a sustainable vehicle and increase the risk of global climate change, and may even have disastrous consequences for the world, which cannot be tolerated.

Third, in order to further prove that we very much believe that the Model S car fire risk is very low, we will revise our insurance policy to increase the fire compensation, even if the fire is caused by improper operation of the driver. If Model S owner does not intentionally destroy the car, we will be in accordance with the chapter compensation. Our goal is to remove the user's concern for the cost of such events, and to ensure that the Model S car for a long time the minimum cost of insurance. In any case, Tesla will bear the corresponding cost, not the buyer to bear.

The above actions will be fully implemented, which is also to clarify our confidence in our products and also to eliminate the industry's misunderstanding about the technology and safety of our automotive products.