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 CEO Elon Musk said the fires, which occurred when metal road debris
pierced the underbody of the cars at highway speeds, are extreme
cases. He doesn't expect a recall and said his engineers are not
working on any fixes for the battery-powered cars.
"In both cases it was a large piece of metal essentially braced
against the tarmac," Musk said in an interview Friday with The
Associated Press.
No one was hurt in the fires, which began in the batteries and
happened along freeways near Seattle and Nashville, Tenn., starting
Oct. 1. Another fire happened in Mexico after the driver ran through
a concrete wall at more than 100 mph. In the Seattle case, the Model
S hit a curved truck part. The car hit a trailer hitch in the
Tennessee crash.
Musk said no one has ever been hurt in a Model S crash, which shows
there's no safety problem for drivers or passengers. The only other
reason to investigate is economic loss from the fires, but that's
not an issue because Tesla amended its warranty to cover fire loss
in crashes, Musk said.
"I'm not saying it can't happen again," he said. "I'm saying in any
kind of low-speed impact, you're fine. Any car, Model S or not Model
S, the underside is going to get significantly damaged if you drive
over a large metal object."
Musk described the weeks since the fires as "torture." He said the
crashes have received an unreasonable amount of media attention
given that no one was injured and the passenger compartments
remained intact. He understands that a new technology such as
electric cars will get more scrutiny, "but not to the insane degree
that we're receiving."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S.
government's auto safety watchdog, announced on Tuesday that it
would investigate the U.S. fires to see if there's a safety problem
in the Tesla design. NHTSA said it would "examine the potential
risks associated with undercarriage strikes." The investigation
could lead to a recall, but a decision likely is months away.
In the telephone interview, Musk also defended the battery placement
in the Model S beneath the passenger compartment and about a
half-foot above the road. That gives the car a low center of gravity
and great handling, he said, while also protecting passengers from
debris coming through the floorboards. The U.S. crashes occurred
with so much force that, in a different car, the objects could have
come through the floor and hurt people, he said.
Since the fires, Tesla has raised the speed at which the car
automatically lowers itself by an inch for better aerodynamics. The
speed went from 50 to 87 mph, so the Model S can still get lower on
high-speed German autobahns which mainly are free of debris, Musk
said. The higher ground clearance for U.S. freeways makes debris
damage less likely, he said. The car's road clearance in normal
driving is 6 inches, which is higher than many other automobiles.
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Musk said there's no reason to bolster the quarter-inch-thick shield
that now protects the battery from road debris. Tesla engineers, he
said, are not working to strengthen the shield, which is made of
heat-treated aluminum.
Tesla's stock price has dropped by 37 percent since the first fire.
Some investors and analysts also were disappointed by the company's
third-quarter results.
But Musk said the stock's value, which earlier in the year had risen
470 percent to $194.50, got too high and the market is correcting
it. "I believe I said several times that the valuation was more than
we had any right to deserve," said Musk, a billionaire who
co-founded PayPal and started SpaceX. "I was not the one who thought
the valuation should go up to such levels."
Tesla shares closed Friday down 72 cents, or 0.6 percent, at
$121.38.
Musk also said that Model S sales are higher than expected so far in
the fourth quarter. Earlier this week the car received the highest
owner satisfaction score in a Consumer Reports survey.
But Barclays analyst Brian Johnson, in a note to investors Thursday,
cut 10 percent from his 2014 Model S sales estimate, saying that
historically other automakers have lost sales during highly
publicized investigations.
Toyota and Audi, he wrote, saw sales drop 10 percent to 20 percent
during past investigations for unintended acceleration. "Even though
both vehicles were later largely exonerated, each of these cases led
to significant demand destruction," Johnson wrote.
He reduced his Model S sales forecast for next year to 29,700, and
lowered his one-year price target for Tesla stock from $141 to $120.
Tesla, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., hasn't released a sales
forecast for next year. But in early November, it predicted 21,500
deliveries worldwide this year.
[Associated
Press; TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer]
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