Another Tesla on fire after a crash.

While searching Latin American press looking for news about Venezuela's sponsorship scandal we came across this report of a Tesla model S doing a fair imitation of an Italian super car.

The accident happened ten days ago in Mexico. Reports say the speeding driver, who adding to the super car mystique disappeared from the scene,  jumped a curb and flew into a low wall, the crash setting the car on fire.

Jalopnik had just confirmed the US government has declined to investigate a recent case of a Model S igniting after a crash in Seattle at the beginning of October. The logic being, cars catch on fire all the time, move along, nothing to see...

As these things are becoming more and more prevalent, what is the correct way to put out an electric car fire anyway?..

UPDATE:  More people pay attention to Axis than we imagined, by the end of the day Monday Tesla stock fell as this story was picked up by the financial press, Bloomberg, Yahoo, USA today,  the Associated Press as well as Jalopnik, Autoblog and countless other car web sites.

Tesla Motors issued the following statement:

“We were able to contact the driver quickly and are pleased that he is safe. This was a significant accident where the car was traveling at such a high speed that it smashed through a concrete wall and then hit a large tree, yet the driver walked away from the car with no permanent injury. He is appreciative of the safety and performance of the car and has asked if we can expedite delivery of his next Model S.”

Montecarlo December 5, 2009.
Times, they are a changing ...er, charging.


Home

Electric Boogaloo, the Axis views the Tesla up close.

Adil writes:
It is an Electric Lotus Elise weighing 2500 lbs, with 240 ft/lbs of Torque available from 0 RPM. The car is built by Lotus although the Tesla marketers claim that it only shares 15% of the Elise's parts.

It looks good, and very familiar to any Elise owners looking at the pictures. It is also completely silent as evidenced by the movie. At the tail end of the short clip you can see the tach briefly 1/3 of the way up. The woman revved the engine but no one could here it above the conversation.

Given the instantaneous torque, it is supposed to go 0-60 in 4 seconds. 35 People who have put down deposits on the car test drove it in New York's West Village last Friday, at an event hosted by The Classic Car Club. The Club is going to buy one for its members. The cost of running it is 1 cent per mile. The car costs 90k and should be available in the fall of 2007.

AC adds:
I'm not automatically against alternate fuel cars but a sports car has to be FUN TO DRIVE, and while I certainly had tons of fun in my life with slot cars I think SOUND IS a fundamental component of enjoyment. The Tesla's main sound components when driving will be tire and wind noise...not really what you want to hear. Maybe they should come up with an automotive version of putting cards against bicycle spokes.
Another issue from our twisted hyper enthusiast prospective: I'm skeptical their published specs would hold up when using the car as we usually do at the track and if their power consumption is linear. Worse, consider 200 miles with a 3.5 hours stop to charge means a trip from say NYC to Watkins Glen would take some 8 to 9 hours?