We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars

In this photo provided by the Corvallis Police Department, emergency personnel pick up batteries at the scene where a man crashed a Tesla while going about 100 mph, destroying the vehicle, a power pole and starting a fire when some of the hundreds of batteries from the vehicle broke windows and landed in residences in Corvallis, Ore., on Tuesday

h/t Greg

32 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars”

  1. Just a bunch of double A’s?

    I’ll admit I know nothing about musks battery tech, but it sure looks like what some nerds used about a decade ago to power their high performance electric car. Lots of laptop batteries bound together.

      1. Most rechargeable batteries from Teslas to power drills to laptops use the 16650 cell to build the size of battery you need. A Tesla I think has 4000 of them. A drill might have 6, a laptop 4.
        Tesla is moving or has moved away from the 18650 to their own design which are slightly larger.
        From 18650BatteryStore.com :
        An 18650 Battery is a lithium-ion rechargeable battery. The first 4 digits of the designation “18650” indicate the physical dimensions while the 5 th digit indicates it is a cylinder cell. The standard 18650 battery is 18mm around by 65mm long

  2. Little bit bigger than AA — they are probably 18650 cells. Does remind one of that SNL commercial for the AA-powered Mercedes, though.

    1. Another bad policy imposed by our politicians.
      The computer components are breaking down much earlier than anticipated.
      They have to set recharging to 90% as the batteries overheat and can catch fire.
      Mechanics have been electrocuted working on them.
      Manufacturers can set all kinds of hidden commands to your car.
      Can be computer hacked.
      Another good government backed imposed failure.

      1. I believe they also restrict the batteries from full charge because charging over 80% quickly causes the batteries to lose capacity.

      2. Hmmm..??

        “..Mechanics have been electrocuted working on them…”

        “Electrocuted”…?? Hardly. DC power won’t kill you regardless…ask any welder. I’ve stood in water with wet boots welding and had 320 Amps / 28 V go through me…not exactly fun, but not anywhere near deadly.

        That said mechanic was “Shocked”… now that I don’t doubt for a minute.

        AC on the other hand – 1 amp can do ya in.

        1. Steakman,
          AC or DC will kill you. It is about the voltage and where the current goes. At 28V there is not alot of push to got through vital organs and likely just went outside your skin. I would guess that you didn’t get 320 AMPS through you, although I have no doubt the welder can delivery 320 Amps, that is not to say that is what went through you. I have had 600 VDC go through me (from ring to index finger same hand) and it was nasty. Not much current though.

          DC is generally considered more dangerous as it will trigger and hold your muscles.

          AC “will let you go”. The reason AC kills more people is we generally run it at higher voltages than DC systems.

          Tesla’s run around 350-375 VDC and it can ruin your day.

        2. I cannot find a link but I remember a Book of World Records having the lowest recorded electrocution was from 40 volts. It was a welder standing knee deep in water. You were 12 volts from repeating that record. It is always the current that flows through you. It takes sufficient voltage to do that from a low impedance source. Static electric shocks easily achieve 5000 volts from walking on carpeting, but its a high impedance source, little actual current. However, people working on film coating lines have been killed by static shocks when a wound up roll of film has a huge charge and easily 50,000 volts or more. I generated over 20,000 volts from a insulated pressure dispenser dispensing de-ionized water. That was only a couple gallons. Try that with 10,000 gallons and you will die. There is a real reason to ground solvent or fuel tanks. Those hoses on the gas pumps are conductive and connect your car to ground. The risk there is not so much electrocution as starting a fire with a spark. However, evidence of electrocution would be lost in the fire.

      1. Guffaw. Now that is witty. :-).

        Will the judge declare the driver to be eighty percent guilty?

  3. I would find myself curious about only 2 things in this crash:

    – Why was he going 100 mph? I bet that’s over the posted limit, and

    – is 100 mph all a Tesla can do? Boooooooring…

    1. No! Substitutes for the real thing are evil! I can’t seem to get them to accept that idea, though.

  4. It is funny, 120 years ago we could probably hear the same arguments about the evil of gasoline cars.
    Just saying.

    1. Tom, you are correct. The fact that taxpayer money is subsidizing the purchase seems to be the only objection that is legitimate to the argument and it is outrageous that the practice still persists. All the “it takes greenhouse gases to produce them, etc.” are just smoke and mirror arguments as this is true of all production. My son in law owns a Tesla, he would have bought it regardless of rebates, it is an amazing piece of technology and an awesome car to drive. It has actually saved him quite a bit of money commuting between Scarborough and downtown Toronto. A great many of the comments I have seen in posts regarding Teslas are displaying a general lack of ignorance of how the car actually works…I could give a rat’s ass, I’m not here to educate. Poor you, some people can afford things you can’t, suck it up. I will now leave it to “the world is changing and I don’t like it nor do I approve” old beezers to trash me. Have at ‘er, don’t let your arthritis hold you back!

  5. This must be satire. It reminds me of a comedy sketch from a 1970s fake talk show hosted by Martin Mull and the great late Fred Willard. Fred was promoting electric cars but his would not start. When he opened the hood, there were about 5,000 D batteries – throughout the talk show, the camera would pan over to Fred who was testing all of the batteries to see which one was dead. Who knew it would come true!

  6. BMW’s suffered more car fires last year than any other car model.

    It’s just not sexy to report those.

    1. RL …. u can easily put out a gas engine on fire …. not a Tesla which is super sexy and keeps on re igniting. Potentially sexy re ignitions for days.

  7. Personally, with zero knowledge…or any desire of such knowledge, I always thought of the electric car batteries as one single giant regular type car battery located on the undercarriage between the front and rear wheels, allowing a super low ground hugging center of gravity. Given, that I expected the current (no pun intended) or most recent battery technology to be used, I had/have no idea how they were constructed. I honestly don’t know if this is a parody or reality. That said, if this is actual reality as to current best available technology, it’s a giant let down in what I thought was “advanced” or modern battery technology. Kind of like those show cars with slick paint, fat tires, and twin giant superchargers, routed through disconnected turbos pretending to be a 1200 horsepower fire breathing street monster, with a hidden cavity underneath for a single Holley four barrel carburetor, that in reality couldn’t get down a drag strip in under ten minutes. All show, and no go. What a disappointment! Surely with today’s supposedly superior advanced modern technology we could do a might better than a thousand type AA batteries connected in series to drive a Tesla!

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