7 Teslas, 1 Diesel Truck: Which One Catches Fire?

Coincidentally, yesterday I was stuck in heavy traffic on Highway I5 heading to Los Angeles, where traffic was being diverted away from all highways because the I5 had been completely closed. While there, I spotted a few Zoox test vehicles on a car transporter, and I speculated here about their significance in Los Angeles.

The reason for the complete closure was, as I could guess from the smoke rising between the mountains, probably a vehicle fire or bush fires. And indeed, it was a vehicle fire involving electric cars. But not in the way some people might think with schadenfreude. Because it wasn’t the seven Teslas on the car transporter that caught fire, but the diesel tractor unit. And unfortunately, the fire quickly spread to the Teslas, at least four of which were destroyed by the burning diesel truck.

We would also like to refer you to the insurance figures as evaluated by the insurance service provider AutoinsuranceEZ for 2021. The study came to the following conclusion:

For every 100,000 vehicles sold, hybrid cars are involved in 3,475 fires, while vehicles with combustion engines burn in 1,530 cases per 100,000 sales. For electric cars, the figure is 25 per 100,000 vehicles sold.

In other words: hybrids burn 139 times more often than electric cars, and combustion engines 61 times more often. If someone wants to commit arson, what do they take with them? A canister of gasoline or a battery? Exactly!

Here is another video:

This article was also published in German.