Category: Safety

On the other hand, challengers to traditional auto manufacturers have rarely ended well (one thinks of the Tucker), and Big Oil is certainly not adverse to using the media to get a message out …

(h/t +George Wiman)

Reshared post from +Pamela Zuppo

It's On: Oil Versus Electric

Something suspicious is going on in the media coverage of car fires this year. Three Tesla Model S cars caught on fire this year, all due to high-speed impacts. Not a single person was hurt.

By comparison, the U.S.A. has had more than 250,000 gasoline car fires in the past year and a half. Those gasoline car fires resulted in over 400 deaths and 1,200 serious injuries. (extrapolating 2012 NFPA data)

Which fires did the media decide to focus on? Which fires generated more headlines than all the others combined? The three Tesla fires that resulted in a grand total of zero deaths and zero serious injuries, of course.

Seems a bit strange, doesn't it? I think so, too. Perhaps I am paying more attention, because I am one of the 19,000 people on Earth that are driving a Tesla Model S, a car that has received the highest safety rating possible. It is the safest car in America, or anywhere else in the world: There have been zero deaths or serious injuries in a Tesla Model S worldwide due to a fire, or any other accident.

But, based on the number of headlines, three fires with no injuries provoked, I can't help but feel like there are other powers at work here.

Let's step back and look at the big picture. Up until now, there has been no serious threat to the world domination of the oil industry and the internal combustion engine. It's a system we have been forced to use because of the simple fact that there has been, until now, no other choice. Enter a brilliant young entrepreneur – who also happens to be a rocket scientist – who creates a compelling and sexy electric car that goes on to win every award under the sun.

There is so much excitement around the Tesla Model S that it is not uncommon for me to come out of the grocery store in North Carolina and find people in the parking lot taking photos of my car. Earlier this year, Tesla made headlines when the Model S became the first car in history to win Motor Trend Car of the Year by unanimous vote. Then Consumer Reports called it the best car they ever tested and gave it a score of 99/100. In May, Tesla wired nearly $500 million to the government and became the only American car company to fully pay back their government loan. Oh, and by the way, they did it nine years early, with interest – $25 million in interest, in fact, back to the taxpayers. Ouch, I bet that goes down like a jagged little pill in the boardrooms of certain other car manufacturers.

Tesla is rocking the boat. What started as a ripple has now become a wave and the boat they are rocking is so enormous in its domination, some may have thought it to be unsinkable. They are rocking it in a way that is making people uncomfortable, especially the people who are heavily invested in it.

So now ask yourself these questions: What happens when a start up car company is outselling their competitors without placing a single ad? What happens when the public has so much confidence in a company that the stock is up more than 300% this year, and was up over 400% before the media went nuts with these headlines about the three fires? What happens when two of the most powerful industries in the world – oil and the established car industry – feel threatened for the first time?

In this country, the gigantic, powerful entity we call Big Oil made $51.5 billion in the second quarter of 2013. $51.5 billion in three months. Think about that number and then consider the internal combustion engine based car industry sold over 14 million cars in the USA last year. These two giants have been in bed with each other for a century: "You drill for the oil, and we'll make the cars. Together, we'll make a fortune. Even if the people hate us, they will have to use our products because they will have no other choice."

And now a little start up company named Tesla has come along and threatened all of that. We didn't expect these antiquated allies to go down without a fight. It's on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leilani-munter/its-on-oil-vs-electric_b_4423011.html?utm_hp_ref=tw