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Comment by toomuchfire | Hacker News Reader

So, we have explosive rockets, the burning teslas, and soon the batteries - how will they fare?

How many teslas started on fire? How many of them were not modified by their owners? How many have they sold in total?

Exactly. Over 67,000 Tesla Model S's have been delivered since 2012. Over a billion miles have been driven in them. I've heard of 3 or 4 fires.

(source for delivery stats: http://my.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/tesla-delivers-10030-... source for billion miles http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/23/tesla-model-s-owners-driv... )

Also relevant: how many gasoline-powered cars catch fire every day (lots), and how many Tesla fires injured their occupants (zero)?

Lots? Only in movies.

"On average, 31 highway vehicle fires were reported per hour."

It's not news because it's so frequent.

http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/vehicle-...

"more than 150,000 annually, which kill some 209 civilians every year" http://www.businessinsider.com/17-cars-catch-on-fire-every-h...

I live in a major city and we have freeway closures due to vehicle fires on a near daily basis. Most recently a truck full of bread caught on fire and resulted in one of the cities most major arteries being closed both ways for 4+ hours.

No it happens, so friends car was overheating, opened up the bonnet to see flames, car was engulfed within 7 minutes of stopping the car.

Yep, the wire harness in two different cars of mine have caught fire over the years.

Over a 10 year period 2003->2013: 2,395,000 car fires causing 4,050 deaths and 13,215 injuries

roughly: 656 fires and one death every day

http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/vehicle-...

This data is valuable but also slightly I'll-fitted for this purpose.

How many relatively recently sold modern gasoline vehicles in a similar category to the Tesla catch on fire? That's the proper number for the comparison.

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