Tesla On Fire

When a Tesla S electric sedan caught fire recently, a tsunami of chatter helped fuel a $2.4 billion drop in the company’s $23 billion market value. Within hours Tesla dispatched a memo detailing the violent 25 ton peak force that punched a 3 inch hole in the quarter inch armored plate that protects the base of the Tesla S, noting quite accurately that a gas-powered vehicle in a similar accident would have fared far worse!

Since then, Tesla stock has regained it’s footing… even bumping up on the news of the preview of the $76,000 Cadillac ELR plug-in electric due out in January.

Even with intense public interest in alt-fuel vehicles, the softness of the plug-in electric and hybrid markets is still undeniable. Despite a 30 percent increase in sales over last year, electrics and hybrids are only 4 percent of new car sales after 14 years on the market.

While manufacturers like Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, Kia and VW continue to turn out new hybrids and electrics, there is near unanimous agreement among automotive engineers that this is a transitional solution, until hydrogen cell or synthetic fuels are more viable.