It’s been ruled; Tesla won’t be facing a large scale investigation over the October 1 battery fire incident , but rather pay the penalty in the revenue it gets from trading green car credits.
The National Highway Safety Administration said on Thursday that “no evidence that the fire on a Washington state highway resulted from a Model S defect or violations of U.S. safety standards. The luxury car struck metal debris that pierced its lithium-ion battery pack.”
Tesla CEO and co-founder, Elon Musk , was keen to point out that they’ve installed a “six-millimeter thick armor plate on the bottom of the car,” further distancing the company from the implications of the fire. Evidently, though, the market did react, and shares fell by 10 percent in the two days after it all happened.
Moving over to the Silicon Valley-based automaker’s European side of the business , Musk gave an interview while he was in London, where he illustrated his views on why the Model S is a suitable car for the Old Continent.
In fact, he even went as far as to say it’s more suitable here, than it is in the US, basing the argument on several points, but especially the reality of distances being much shorter, and therefore making the dreaded range anxiety less of an issue. You can find the interview, in video form, courtesy of Bloomberg , after the virtual jump.
By Andrei Nedelea
