Wheels Blog: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Tests Crash Avoidance Systems

After 3 Fires, Safety Agency Opens Inquiry Into Tesla Model S

For the first time, regulators are examining whether the design of the high-end vehicle and its advanced lithium-ion battery pack are defective and the cause of two battery fires.

After garnering high praise for its styling, performance and eco-friendly electric power, the Model S will be the subject of scrutiny by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, said the company welcomed the inquiry.

At issue is whether the size, shape and chemical makeup of the car’s battery makes it prone to fires when its lithium-ion cells are punctured in a collision.

Mr. Musk has repeatedly defended the design of the Model S, which won early accolades for its safety from regulators and independent publications like Consumer Reports. But the car has caught fire on three occasions in less than two months — twice in the United States and once in Mexico.

By comparison, the Nissan Leaf — the best-selling all-electric car on the market — has not had any reported fires.

A federal defect investigation can take months to complete, and could include crash tests of the vehicle well beyond the ordinary government testing done on cars before introduction.

Tesla said it would increase the ground clearance of the Model S, and it also pledged to extend its current vehicle warranty to cover fire damage.

But those changes are not expected to divert the focus of the investigation, or minimize the potential for the safety agency to order structural changes and a vehicle recall.

“Adjustments or modifications of the vehicle will not affect the inquiry,” said Karl Brauer, an analyst with the auto research firm Kelley Blue Book. “That is out of Tesla’s hands now, and the range of potential outcomes is very wide.”

As a start-up company in the keenly competitive global auto industry, Tesla has, until now, enjoyed remarkable early success with its Model S luxury sedan.

Mr. Musk’s track record as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur gave the company credibility that helped it secure a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy in 2010.

Glowing reviews of the Model S, which is priced at $70,000 and higher, fueled investor interest in a public stock offering that allowed Tesla to pay back its government loans early.

The company has since become a darling of Wall Street because of steadily growing sales of the Model S and Tesla’s promise to bring less expensive models to market in the future. Tesla stock, which has slid about 35 percent from its high, closed at $126.09 on Tuesday.

But the safety agency inquiry has raised questions about what was perceived to be one of Tesla’s greatest strengths — its technological superiority.

Mr. Musk has not retreated from his position that the Model S is safer from fires than vehicles with gasoline engines.

And in a blog posting on the company website on Monday, Mr. Musk went so far as to assert that Tesla asked federal regulators to conduct the safety investigation to allay any fears about electric cars. “There is a larger issue at stake,” Mr. Musk wrote. “If a false perception about the safety of electric cars is allowed to linger, it will delay the advent of sustainable transport and increase the risk of global climate change, with potentially disastrous consequences worldwide.”

The agency flatly denied on Tuesday that the inquiry was opened because of a Tesla request.

The swift rebuttal of Mr. Musk underscores how Tesla’s relentless promotional campaign is wearing thin on regulators charged with making the nation’s vehicles and roadways safe.

The agency, in fact, had originally cleared the Model S of possible defects after the first vehicle fire, which occurred Oct. 1, when the car struck a metal object on a highway in Kent, Wash., outside of Seattle.

A high-speed crash in Mexico on Oct. 18 also resulted in a fire, but that incident was beyond the scope of American regulators. A third fire occurred on Nov. 6 on a highway in Smyrna, Tenn., near Nashville, after a Model S ran over a tow hitch in the roadway.

That accident prompted regulators to revisit their earlier pronouncement of the car’s safety.

“The agency has opened a formal investigation to determine if a safety defect exists in certain Model S vehicles,” the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

Safety: 2014 Forester Gets Top Rating in Offset Crash Test

The 2014 Subaru Forester was the only one of 13 compact crossovers and S.U.V.’s to earn the highest rating in a new, more severe front crash test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The new Forester was rated Good, and the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport received the next-highest rating, Acceptable.

The insurance institute, which is financed by the insurance industry, began conducting the new test, called the small overlap test, in 2012. The results are rated on a scale of Good, Acceptable, Marginal and Poor. Vehicles are rated separately for their structure, for how well the driver dummy is restrained and for potential injuries to the dummy. Those are combined into the overall rating.

Moreover, the redesigned Forester was the first vehicle of 47 tested to date to receive perfect scores in all of those categories.

“It’s what we envisioned when we were first developing this test,” said Joe Nolan, the institute’s vice president for vehicle research. “They addressed the issues of structure. They addressed the issues of keeping the occupant engaged with the frontal air bag; keeping the steering wheel in front of the driver; deploying the side curtain air bag. All of those things, when they work together, they work very well.”

Receiving an overall rating of Marginal were the BMW X1, Honda CR-V, two-door Jeep Wrangler, Mazda CX-5, Nissan Rogue and Volkswagen Tiguan.

Receiving the lowest rating, Poor, were the Buick Encore, Ford Escape, Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Patriot and Kia Sportage.

Conspicuously absent from the latest tested group was the Toyota RAV4, which will not be tested until later this year. In a press release, the institute noted that Toyota had “asked for the delay” so it could make changes “to improve” the RAV4’s test performance.

The new small overlap test is intended to replicate what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle, or with an object like a tree or utility pole. In the test, 25 percent of the car’s front end on the driver’s side strikes a rigid barrier at 40 miles per hour.

Because the impact is to the car’s outer edge, it misses the main crush-zone structures that reduce crash forces to the passenger compartment, increasing the risk of severe damage to the structure that surrounds the occupants.

In these impacts, vehicles tend to rotate and slide sideways. This movement can fling the dummy toward the windshield and front door pillar. And it can push the steering wheel, which contains an air bag, so far to the right that the dummy can fall into a gap between the steering wheel air bag and the side-curtain air bag that is meant to protect the head.

In the Jeep Patriot, for example, the steering wheel moved up eight inches and to the right almost six inches, causing the dummy’s head to slide off the front air bag. And the side curtain air bag did not deploy.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 26, 2013

An article in some editions last Sunday about the Subaru Forester’s strong performance in crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety referred imprecisely to the overall ratings. While the Forester was the first of 47 tested vehicles to receive a perfect score, it was not the first to get a Good rating in all tests. The Volvo XC60 was also rated Good in all categories, though it received a demerit because its side-curtain air bag did not provide enough forward coverage.

Wheels Blog: Safety Agency Upgrades Inquiry on Mercedes-Benz E-Class Sedans

Mercedes-Benz USA Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is upgrading an investigation into fuel leaks on about 250,000 Mercedes-Benz sedans, according to a report posted on the agency Web site. The investigation covers 2003-8 E-Class models.

The agency began investigating in January 2012 and says it has gathered about 350 complaints from owners about fuel leaking or a strong odor of gasoline, particularly after refueling. That warrants intensifying the investigation, the agency said.

The reports cover the E55 AMG high-performance sedan and other E-Class models.

In other actions, General Motors is recalling about 26,500 of its 2013 Cadillac SRX and Buick LaCrosse models to reprogram the automatic transmission, according to a report posted Wednesday on the N.H.T.S.A. Web site.

The automaker said the problem with the LaCrosse and SRX involved its Driver Shift Control. The control allows the driver to manually select a gear on the automatic transmission, typically to help slow the vehicle on a long descent.

However, the transmission could shift itself back into fully automatic mode, the automaker said. That would cause a loss of the braking effect. A software change should fix the problem.

In a second action, General Motors told the safety agency it was recalling 48 of its natural-gas powered 2011 Chevrolet Express vans primarily used by fleets because the gas could be released into the passenger compartment. The company blamed “a misbuilt pressure relief vent pipe.”

If the device activates, G.M. told the agency, compressed natural gas could be channeled into the passenger compartment. “This could cause an explosion or fire if an ignition source were present,” the automaker said.

Both problems were discovered by General Motors employees. Alan Adler, a spokesman for the automaker, said in an e-mail that the company wasn’t aware of any accidents or injuries.