Statistically, Tesla Car Fires Are Less And Less Frequent

The company reports that fire incidents are 11x lower for Tesla vehicles than the average vehicle in the US.

Tesla Model 3

Mark Kane

By: Mark Kane

May 9, 2022 at 2:25pm ET

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Tesla has recently revealed its latest Vehicle Fire Data provided for the period 2012-2021, which indicates another year of improvement in the reduction of fire incidents per driving distance.

According to the company, during the 2012-2021 period, there was roughly one Tesla vehicle fire for every 210 million miles traveled (compared to 205 million miles in 2012-2020 period).

It's great news. We also must remember that not all of the fires were caused by Tesla cars, as the manufacturer's data set includes instances of vehicle fires caused by structure fires, arson, and other things unrelated to the vehicle to make "an apt comparison" to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) data.

According to the NFPA, the national average for vehicle fires remains at the same level of one fire per 19 million miles traveled.

The difference between Tesla and the average is 11:1, which is a big win not only for Tesla, but in general, for electric cars.

We guess that the Tesla car fleet is relatively new compared to the national average, but even after adjusting for age, it would rather outweigh the 11:1 advantage.

Tesla Vehicle Fire Data – 2012-2021

"From 2012 – 2021, there has been approximately one Tesla vehicle fire for every 210 million miles traveled. By comparison, data from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and U.S. Department of Transportation shows that in the United States there is a vehicle fire for every 19 million miles traveled."

In the new 2021 Impact Report, Tesla revealed also the data in a different way, that from 2021 to 2021, there were approximately five Tesla vehicle fires for every billion miles traveled, while the national average for all vehicles is 53.

What do you think?

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The company notes that the media often reports on an EV fire, chasing clicks, while in reality, there are vastly fewer Tesla vehicle fires per distance unit.