Here's A Smart Explanation Of Why That Car Fire Is Not A Big Problem For Tesla

Since a Tesla Model S caught fire after crashing last week, the big question has been: Is this a major problem for the electric car company?

A Quora user phrased it a bit differently, asking, "Can Tesla recover from this battery fire attention?"

The best answer came from Jason Lemkin, managing director at Storm Ventures.

The fire won't be a problem, he argued, because Tesla clearly presented the facts of the case and properly put the crash in context.

With Lemkin's permission, we've republished his excellently reasoned answer:

--

Can Tesla recovered from this battery fire attention?

Yes, no problem.

Elon Musk and Tesla got sufficiently ahead of it and properly explained the fire in context: Model S Fire | Blog | Tesla Motors. Also, no one was injured in a serious accident.

High-energy density batteries are potentially bombs, pure and simple. Tesla designed a system of true firewalls to protect against catastrophic explosions that seems to have worked well.

Even here, where the "bomb" finally went off due to firewall breaches -- it was contained and there were no injuries and the driver had sufficient warning and time to exit the Model S properly.

Accidents happen in cars -- all the time. Every day. The reality is with ~20k Teslas on the road, and tons of accidents already, the fact that this is the first (at least known) explosive fire says it's all working well. See, e.g., Tesla Motors: Tesla Motors Inc.: What happens when a Tesla car crashes?

Also, Tesla didn't attempt to blame the customer. They immediately reached out in mostly the right way, and offered him a loaner immediately and provided a Root Cause Analysis, er, explanation for the events. The customer concurred and thanked Tesla.

That's the way to do it.

Most blame the customer, and/or obscure the facts.

Read more from Jason Lemkin at SaaStr.com.