fire

BMW is recalling more than 19,000 i3 REx extended-range electric cars due to concerns over the potential for fires to be started by fuel vapors. The REx uses a small gasoline engine to charge its battery pack, offering a longer range than the all-electric i3 when both gasoline and electric power...

The NHTSA is investigating eight reported engine fires in 2008 and 2009 Smart ForTwo city cars.

The topic of electric cars and fires is a fraught one, not helped by the recent spate of videos of cheap Chinese hoverboards in flames. Any fire in an electric car tends to make headlines, regardless of whether the facts have been established. Now we have the results of an investigation into the...

Tesla Motors is assisting Los Angeles police and fire departments in their investigation following the high-speed crash of a stolen Tesla Model S early Friday morning. Officers reported chasing the Model S at speeds of up to 100 mph before the stolen vehicle hit another car on North La Brea Avenue...

A stolen Tesla Model S was destroyed in a crash Thursday night following a police chase that hit speeds of 100 mph through West Hollywood. Several other vehicles were also destroyed in the high-speed accident and at least four people were hospitalized, in a crash that left the Model S split in two...

Authorities are currently investigating the causes of a fire in a garage in Southern California that contained a Tesla Model S. While the actual cause of the fire remains undetermined, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and the Orange County Fire Authority are publicly disputing possible causes, thought to...

It's been quite a month for Tesla Motors and its CEO, Elon Musk. In the wake of three fires in Model S electric luxury sedans, a tsunami of media coverage about those fires, and a falling stock price--which may or may not be directly related--the company went on the offensive yesterday. MORE: Tesla...

Unless your name is Brinks, you rarely hear the words "armor" and "car" mentioned in the same sentence. But two recent widely-publicized fires in the Tesla Model S electric car have put the spotlight on how its battery pack is protected from severe impacts underneath the car. MORE: Tesla Fires...

There have now been three separate fires among roughly 20,000 Tesla Model S electric luxury sedans on the world's highways. The most recent one, two days ago, seems to have set off a fresh round of Internet fulmination--combined with much opining on what the news would do to the falling stock price...

Tesla Motors is responding to media coverage of the first Model S fire with information and a testimonial from the car's owner.

Discovering fire is undoubtedly a high point in mankind's history, but it's easy to overlook its benefits when it's consuming something you own. We'll forgive you if your thoughts turned towards electric cars at this stage. After all, the last few years have seen a few high-profile electric car...

As luxury automaker Fisker prepares to battle in the courts over its Sandy-damaged Karmas, more details have emerged as to why its cars were sitting at Port Newark in the first place--they were there for recall work. 338 Fisker Karmas were submerged during the deluge of Superstorm Sandy, damaging...

It's becoming an awkward, unfortunate routine. Somewhere, somehow, a Fisker Karma catches fire, and the company rushes in its inspectors and engineers to analyze the incident. A few days later, Fisker Automotive issues a statement explaining that the battery of the range-extended electric car isn't...

For luxury automaker Fisker, things just go from bad to worse. While hurricane Sandy has caused more pressing issues for the East coast and its residents than a few submerged cars, images of sixteen destroyed Fisker Karmas will do nothing to ease nerves at the troubled firm. Worse still, the images...

Our hearts sink a little every time we discover news of an electric car fire. Will others also go up in flames? Will the media turn it into an anti-EV frenzy, like they did with the Chevy Volt? Reports of an electric Smart ForTwo going up in flames at a home in Florida brought all those thoughts...

While Fisker's new CEO may be getting headlines today, the company continues to grapple with fallout from Friday's fire in a 2012 Fisker Karma. Over the weekend, Fisker had issued a statement saying it was investigating the incident. Yesterday, the company issued a further statement. In the...

Given the hurricane of bad publicity for the Chevrolet Volt last year over a battery-pack fire (in a crash-testing vehicle, a week after it was wrecked), any fire at all in a plug-in car is one too many. So the occurrence of a second fire among only 1,000 Fisker Karma range-extended electric luxury...

The post-impact electric-car fire which led to the death of three people in Shenzhen, China earlier this year was not caused by the car’s battery pack, crash investigators have concluded. The tragedy happened in May, when a BYD e6 all-electric taxi was hit early one morning by a speeding...

Ever since a battery pack from a 2012 Chevrolet Volt caught fire weeks after it was subjected to tough National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tests in a laboratory, critics of General Motor’s plug-in hybrid have been quick to question its safety credentials. But after a Toyota Camry...

Over the weekend we heard the disturbing news that a BYD e6 electric taxi in Shenzhen China had burst into flames and killed three of its occupants after being hit by a speeding drunk driver. According to eyewitness reports, the BYD e6 taxi, one of around 400 e6 electric taxis being used in the...