Elon Musk, founder of Space-X, and co-founder of Tesla Motors and Paypal, recently wrote to FLightglobal.com: "Unfortunately, the pack architecture supplied to Boeing is inherently unsafe."
He further explained, "Large cells without enough space between them to isolate against the cell-to-cell thermal domino effect means it is simply a matter of time before there are more incidents of this nature."
The comments were made in connection with the move by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to ground as many as 50 Boeing 787 Dreamliners since the beginning of the year. Because safety is their primary concern, the NTSB and other regulatory agencies are currently investigating battery failures in the planes, some of which have led to fairly serious on-board fires.
As the founder of Tesla, we have to consider Musk's comments as those from an expert in this field. While there have been some reports of the Chevy Volt and other electric car batteries catching fire in the last year, no similar reports have arose from the 2,000 or so Teslas on the road today. Many attribute this to the superior engineering and quality control testing of each battery and car built by Tesla.
Flightglobal explains: "Both Boeing and Tesla use batteries fueled by lithium cobalt oxide, which is among the most energy-dense and flammable chemistries of lithium-ion batteries on the market. While Boeing elected to use a battery with a grouping of eight large cells, Tesla's batteries contain thousands of smaller cells that are independently separated to prevent fire in a single cell from harming the surrounding ones."
Source: Flightglobal.com
Image Credit: Tesla Motors (Model S Pictured)
He further explained, "Large cells without enough space between them to isolate against the cell-to-cell thermal domino effect means it is simply a matter of time before there are more incidents of this nature."
The comments were made in connection with the move by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to ground as many as 50 Boeing 787 Dreamliners since the beginning of the year. Because safety is their primary concern, the NTSB and other regulatory agencies are currently investigating battery failures in the planes, some of which have led to fairly serious on-board fires.
As the founder of Tesla, we have to consider Musk's comments as those from an expert in this field. While there have been some reports of the Chevy Volt and other electric car batteries catching fire in the last year, no similar reports have arose from the 2,000 or so Teslas on the road today. Many attribute this to the superior engineering and quality control testing of each battery and car built by Tesla.
Flightglobal explains: "Both Boeing and Tesla use batteries fueled by lithium cobalt oxide, which is among the most energy-dense and flammable chemistries of lithium-ion batteries on the market. While Boeing elected to use a battery with a grouping of eight large cells, Tesla's batteries contain thousands of smaller cells that are independently separated to prevent fire in a single cell from harming the surrounding ones."
Source: Flightglobal.com
Image Credit: Tesla Motors (Model S Pictured)
Tags: Tesla, Electric Cars, Technology