text: CLOSE The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk are both taking a close look at the Model S after car fires reported from striking road debris. VPC 
   
   The electric car maker has sent through a software change to make its cars ride higher 
   
   In this Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013 photo provided by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, emergency workers respond to a fire on a Tesla Model S electric car in Smyrna, Tenn. (Photo: AP) Story Highlights The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a probe into Tesla's Model S 
   
   The probe of the electric car results from reports of battery fires 
   
   Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he stands behind the car, but has ordered changes 
   
   The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today it has opened a formal investigation into the safety of the Tesla Model S electric car following two reports of battery fires after striking roadway debris. 
   
   The agency said its safety investigation was prompted by recent "undercarriage strikes" in Washington state and Tennessee. In both cases, fires resulted after the cars both ran over debris on the road that pierced the battery compartment. After news of the probe broke, Tesla shares fell to $116 in pre-market trading but climbed back once the market opened. They closed 3.7%, or $4.51, up for the day at $126.09 a share. 
   
   TESLA STOCK: Shares rise despite federal probe into fires 
   
   Early Tuesday before NHTSA's announcement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that he taking three steps as a result of the fires, but added that he stands behind their safety. The steps were: 
   
   •Higher ground clearance to make them less likely to strike road debris that can potentially penetrate the battery pack and ignite a blaze. 
   
   •Asking federal safety regulators to "conduct a full investigation as soon as possible into the fires." Musk gave no hint that NHTSA was about to open an investigation. 
   
   •Amending the cars' warranty to cover damage due to fire. 
   
   A NHTSA probe can lead to recall, but earlier this month Musk says he has no plans to order one because he doesn't think it is warranted. 
   
   Musk announced the steps in a lengthy post on Tesla's blog. In it, he offers yet another strong defense of the car's safety, especially as it relates to protection from fire. "We believe the evidence is clear that there is no safer car on the road than the Model S," he writes. His company expects to produce more than 20,000 of the electric cars this year, which sell for about $70,000 and up. 
   
   He calls media reaction to the three fires a gross overreaction, especially given how thousands of conventional cars have been consumed by gasoline fires from ruptured tanks over the years. 
   
   He says his battery-powered car is actually safer than just about any gas-powered car on the road. 
   
   Elon Musk CEO of Tesla with a new Model S car outside the Tesla customer deliver area at the Tesla Fremont, Calif., factory (Photo: Jessica Brandi Lifland for USA TODAY) 
   
   "Since the Model S went into production mid last year, there have been over 400 deaths and 1,200 serious injuries in the United States alone due to gasoline car fires, compared to zero deaths and zero injuries due to Tesla fires anywhere in the world." 
   
   In the posting of its investigation, NHTSA noted that passengers in the Teslas that caught on fire were able to escape. "In each incident, the vehicle's battery monitoring system provided escalating visible and audible warnings, allowing the driver to execute a controlled stop and exit the vehicle before the battery emitted smoke and fire," NHTSA writes. 
   
   CLOSE Tesla stock fell after reports of the electric cars catching fire after striking road debris VPC 
   
   Two of the Tesla fires were caused when the vehicle struck road debris that pierced the battery compartment. The third happened in Mexico when a Model S crashed. In each case, the occupants escaped unharmed. Musk says it's proof of the car's safety. 
   
   But given the media outcry, Musk indicates he decided to act even though he already stands by the car. He says the plan to create more ground clearance under the cars has already been implemented. 
   
   Tesla has already sent a signal to the computers in all Model S cars to tell them to increase the vehicle's ground clearance at highway speeds. he says the goal is to reduce the chance of hitting objects on the road. Another software update in January is aimed at letting drivers set their preferred road height for themselves and passengers. 
   
   As for the NHTSA involvement in probing the three accidents that led to fires, Musk says that if regulators offers suggestions on how to improve fire safety in the Model S, he will immediately implement them. he has previously said he does not expect that the Model S will need to be recalled over the fires. 
   
   When it comes to extending the warranty on the sedan, Musk says his decision will apply to Tesla models and be applicable even if the driver is held to be a fault for the fire. 
   
   Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/I0PQdJ ||||| Federal safety regulators opened a probe into a series of fires in Tesla Motors Inc. electric cars following crashes. 
   
   The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday that it would investigate why two of the expensive Tesla Model S sporty hatchbacks have caught fire this year following accidents in which the battery casing that serves as the undercarriage of the car cracked open. 
   
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   A third fire, which took place in Mexico, won’t be part of the investigation because it is outside the agency’s jurisdiction. 
   
   NHTSA noted that in the two U.S. fires, one in Seattle and the other in Nashville, the battery monitoring system in the cars warned the drivers, allowing them to pull over and safely exit the vehicles before the battery emitted smoke and fire. 
   
   The fires have become an issue for Tesla, contributing to 37% drop in the value of its stock since reaching a high of $193.37 on Sept. 30. The shares were down an additional 2% in overnight trading Tuesday. 
   
   Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the automaker requested the investigation to refute fears that electric cars are more prone to fires than other vehicles. 
   
   [Updated 8:55 a.m. PST, Nov. 19: Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk claimed that the automaker requested the investigation to refute fears that electric cars were more prone to fires than other vehicles. 
   
   But the NHTSA disputed that, saying its decision was an independent process. 
   
   “In regards to Tesla, the agency notified the automaker of its plans to open a formal investigation and requested their cooperation," the agency said, "which is standard agency practice for all investigations.” 
   
   Tesla is already taking action, changing its warranty to cover damage due to a fire, even if due to driver error. 
   
   “Either our belief in the safety of our car is correct and this is a minor cost," Musk said, "or we are wrong, in which case the right thing is for Tesla to bear the cost rather than the car buyer.” 
   
   The automaker believes the warranty change, which doesn’t apply if an owner purposefully sets the car on fire, will reassure buyers.] 
   
   “If a false perception about the safety of electric cars is allowed to linger, it will delay the advent of sustainable transport and increase the risk of global climate change,” Musk wrote in a post to his blog on the Tesla website Monday night. 
   
   PHOTOS: Tesla Model S 
   
   The automaker is taking advantage of the car’s electronic capabilities to execute a wireless update to the air suspension that will result in greater ground clearance at highway speeds, Musk said. 
   
   “This is about reducing the chances of underbody impact damage, not improving safety,” Musk said. “The theoretical probability of a fire injury is already vanishingly small and the actual number to date is zero.” 
   
   Another software update expected in January will give the driver direct control of the air suspension ride height transitions. 
   
   Musk also defended the automaker’s vehicles, writing that they have a lower fire risk than gasoline vehicles. 
   
   “Since the Model S went into production mid last year, there have been over 400 deaths and 1,200 serious injuries in the United States alone due to gasoline car fires, compared to zero deaths and zero injuries due to Tesla fires anywhere in the world,” Musk wrote. ||||| Our goal when we created Tesla a decade ago was the same as it is today: to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible. If we could have done that with our first product, we would have, but that was simply impossible to achieve for a startup company that had never built a car and that had one technology iteration and no economies of scale. Our first product was going to be expensive no matter what it looked like, so we decided to build a sports car, as that seemed like it had the best chance of being competitive with its gasoline alternatives. 
   
   I suspected that this could be misinterpreted as Tesla believing that there was a shortage of sports cars for rich people, so I described the three step “master plan” for getting to compelling and affordable electric vehicles in my first blog piece about our company. This was unfortunately almost entirely ignored. 
   
   In order to get to that end goal, big leaps in technology are required, which naturally invites a high level of scrutiny. That is fair, as new technology should be held to a higher standard than what has come before. However, there should also be some reasonable limit to how high such a standard should be, and we believe that this has been vastly exceeded in recent media coverage. 
   
   How Does the Tesla Model S Fire Risk Compare to Gasoline Cars? 
   
   Since the Model S went into production last year, there have been more than a quarter million gasoline car fires in the United States alone, resulting in over 400 deaths and approximately 1,200 serious injuries (extrapolating 2012 NFPA data). However, the three Model S fires, which only occurred after very high-speed collisions and caused no serious injuries or deaths, received more national headlines than all 250,000+ gasoline fires combined. The media coverage of Model S fires vs. gasoline car fires is disproportionate by several orders of magnitude, despite the latter actually being far more deadly. 
   
   Reading the headlines, it is therefore easy to assume that the Tesla Model S and perhaps electric cars in general have a greater propensity to catch fire than gasoline cars when nothing could be further from the truth. 
   
   Journalists with a deep knowledge of the car industry, such as the news editor of Automotive News, understand and attempt to rebut this notion, but they have been drowned out by an onslaught of popular and financial media seeking to make a sensation out of something that a simple Google search would reveal to be false. I would also like to express appreciation for the investigative journalists who took the time to research and write an accurate article. 
   
   The degree to which this is outrageous is described well in the above-mentioned Automotive News article. There are now substantially more than the 19,000 Model S vehicles on the road that were reported in our Q3 shareholder letter for an average of one fire per at least 6,333 cars, compared to the rate for gasoline vehicles of one fire per 1,350 cars. By this metric, you are more than four and a half times more likely to experience a fire in a gasoline car than a Model S! Considering the odds in the absolute, you are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than experience even a non-injurious fire in a Tesla. 
   
   Those metrics tell only part of the story. The far more deadly nature of a gasoline car fire deserves to be re-emphasized. Since the Model S went into production mid last year, there have been over 400 deaths and 1,200 serious injuries in the United States alone due to gasoline car fires, compared to zero deaths and zero injuries due to Tesla fires anywhere in the world. 
   
   There is a real, physical reason for this: a gasoline tank has 10 times more combustion energy than our battery pack. Moreover, the Model S battery pack also has internal firewalls between the 16 modules and a firewall between the battery pack and passenger compartment. This effectively limits the fire energy to a few percent that of a gasoline car and is the reason why Dr. Shibayama was able to retrieve his pens and papers from the glove compartment completely untouched after the recent fire (caused by a high speed impact with a tow hitch). It is also why arsonists tend to favor gasoline. Trying to set the side of a building on fire with a battery pack is far less effective. 
   
   What About Safety Overall? 
   
   Our primary concern is not for the safety of the vehicle, which can easily be replaced, but for the safety of our customers and the families they entrust to our cars. Based on the Model S track record so far, you have a zero percent chance of being hurt in an accident resulting in a battery fire, but what about other types of accidents? Despite multiple high-speed accidents, there have been no deaths or serious injuries in a Model S of any kind ever. Of course, at some point, the law of large numbers dictates that this, too, will change, but the record is long enough already for us to be extremely proud of this achievement. This is why the Model S achieved the lowest probability of injury of any car ever tested by the US government. The probability of injury is the most accurate statistical figure of merit, showing clearly that the Model S is safer in an accident than any other vehicle without exception. It is literally impossible for another car to have a better safety track record, as it would have to possess mystical powers of healing. 
   
   Further Actions 
   
   While we believe the evidence is clear that there is no safer car on the road than the Model S, we are taking three specific actions. 
   
   First, we have rolled out an over-the-air update to the air suspension that will result in greater ground clearance at highway speeds. To be clear, this is about reducing the chances of underbody impact damage, not improving safety. The theoretical probability of a fire injury is already vanishingly small and the actual number to date is zero. Another software update expected in January will give the driver direct control of the air suspension ride height transitions. 
   
   Second, we have requested that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conduct a full investigation as soon as possible into the fire incidents. While we think it is highly unlikely, if something is discovered that would result in a material improvement in occupant fire safety, we will immediately apply that change to new cars and offer it as a free retrofit to all existing cars. Given that the incidence of fires in the Model S is far lower than combustion cars and that there have been no resulting injuries, this did not at first seem like a good use of NHTSA’s time compared to the hundreds of gasoline fire deaths per year that warrant their attention. However, there is a larger issue at stake: if a false perception about the safety of electric cars is allowed to linger, it will delay the advent of sustainable transport and increase the risk of global climate change, with potentially disastrous consequences worldwide. That cannot be allowed to happen. 
   
   Third, to reinforce how strongly we feel about the low risk of fire in our cars, we will be amending our warranty policy to cover damage due to a fire, even if due to driver error. Unless a Model S owner actively tries to destroy the car, they are covered. Our goal here is to eliminate any concern about the cost of such an event and ensure that over time the Model S has the lowest insurance cost of any car at our price point. Either our belief in the safety of our car is correct and this is a minor cost or we are wrong, in which case the right thing is for Tesla to bear the cost rather than the car buyer. 
   
   All of these actions are taken in order to make clear the confidence we have in our product and to eliminate any misperceptions regarding the integrity of our technology and the safety of our cars.
target: – Tesla is facing more scrutiny following three car fires in six weeks. First, investors launched a lawsuit; now, the government is getting involved, USA Today reports. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is now investigating two of the fires, both of which occurred after Model S undercarriages hit debris on the road (the other happened during a crash). In a blog post, CEO Elon Musk says his company asked for the investigation and writes that "if something is discovered that would result in a material improvement in occupant fire safety, we will immediately apply that change to new cars and offer it as a free retrofit to all existing cars." But the NHTSA tells the LAT a different story: "The agency notified the automaker of its plans to open a formal investigation and requested their cooperation, which is standard agency practice for all investigations." Musk also says the company will increase the cars' ground clearance to help prevent them from hitting debris, and warranties will start covering fire damage, even in the event of driver error, "to reinforce how strongly we feel about the low risk of fire in our cars." To that end: "We believe the evidence is clear that there is no safer car on the road than the Model S," Musk notes. "Since the Model S went into production mid last year, there have been more than a quarter million gasoline car fires in the United States alone, resulting in over 400 deaths and 1,200 serious injuries ... compared to zero deaths and zero injuries due to Tesla fires. The media coverage of Model S fires vs. gasoline car fires is disproportionate by several orders of magnitude, despite the latter actually being far more deadly."