I haven't seen the debris but it could have been part of the trailer itself. Not that it makes it any better. Things should not be falling off of trucks. Just saying that it might have been a maintenance issue or some kind of freak accident.
That being said, If that part had punctured a gas tank of a petrol vehicle the damage could've been explosive or caused a fire also.
I like how they have calculated how this happened because that most likely means in the next revision they may improve the skid plate or the battery wall to protect it from such things. Or recall them and retrofit, if needed. They aren't being mysterious like I've seen from other auto manufacturers. But then again, not every company dives in $1B in worth after a car has an accident.
Yeah much like a lot of substances it's only explosive in vapor form. I was thinking the top part of a gas tank, some hypothetical, but not likely, scenario. It seems that the danger from both the Lithium battery and a gas tank are about the same. If the car catches fire it will be because of some freak accident.
IRL less than 2% of auto fires involve fuel lines/tanks etc. Your scenario tends to play out better for intentional fires, tho. So, yeah if you molotov cocktail a car it will ignite...but it does not do so under typical use hardly ever.
Cars can explode after a terrible impact, it's been recorded before. I don't think a gas tank puncture would cause it unless it was some how ventilated, the gas vaporized, and then ignited.
But I know what you mean. You mean the hollywood explosion. That's not real life.
Mythbusters tested the "shoot a car's gas tank and make it explode" myth. A punctured gas tank may not explode... but it will leak. And a puddle of gas on the ground around the car can catch fire more easily. And then things get worse from there.
I don't have numbers on how much force a typical skid plate can withstand without damage, but I would be willing to bet that 25 tons of force at a relatively small point of impact would be extremely hard to design around without some major drawbacks (weight and ride height, mostly). Considering this is such an uncommon experience. designing for such an edge case and accepting the drawbacks might not even be acceptable.
It sounds more like they're congratulating themselves on designing the failure to be so easily contained.
That being said, If that part had punctured a gas tank of a petrol vehicle the damage could've been explosive or caused a fire also.
I like how they have calculated how this happened because that most likely means in the next revision they may improve the skid plate or the battery wall to protect it from such things. Or recall them and retrofit, if needed. They aren't being mysterious like I've seen from other auto manufacturers. But then again, not every company dives in $1B in worth after a car has an accident.