An Insurance Company Fakes a 'Tesla Battery Fire' to Demonstrate How EVs are Accident-Prone

An insurance company staged a fake Tesla battery fire in a strange demonstration to prove that electric vehicles are more accident-prone.

It is worth noting that many international car safety organizations have evaluated Tesla automobiles, notably the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which most recently awarded the Tesla Model Y its highest safety rating.

Crash Test Demonstration

There were no batteries in the tested vehicles, as the firm acknowledged in response to a request from 24auto.de.

The entire "crash test" demonstration served to promote a report by AXA claiming that electric vehicles are more likely to be involved in accidents that result in massive damages.

The press office claims that because there were guests present, it would have been too risky to demonstrate a battery fire. Thus, the electric cars' battery cells were taken out before the tests.

With the same justification, the insurance firm used pyrotechnics to start the fire of a Tesla Model S that was being tested.

AXA figures claim that drivers of electric cars are 50% more likely than those of traditional combustion engines to cause crashes with damage to their own vehicles.

They also said that high-performance electric car drivers are involved in collisions with themselves more than twice as often as drivers of conventional combustion vehicles.

Data can be used to reveal a variety of things, but in this instance, AXA has chosen not to compare vehicles by market category.

EV Accidents

As noted by Electrek, electric vehicles do accelerate quicker on average because of the instant torque and the inability of some drivers to handle such power, which results in accidents.

"We wanted to use the fire the accident researchers: on the one hand point out the danger of a cell fire, which can result from damage to the underside of the electric car, and on the other hand point out the problems with fires in electric vehicles in general," the company said in a statement.

"Fortunately, fires are very rare in electric cars as well as in conventional combustion engines. In the rare case of a battery fire, so-called thermal runaways can."

The high torque present in the majority of EVs, according to Michael Pfäffli, head of accident research at AXA Switzerland, may cause unintended, abrupt acceleration and a loss of control.

It was anticipated that the Tesla's driver would lose control during the crash test, causing the vehicle to flip over on a traffic island.

Axa reported the underbody was severely damaged, but the passenger side was unharmed following the collision. The drive battery was fairly well covered, but Axa researchers highlighted that it might still be a fire hazard.

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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla