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A comment on Elon Musk defiant in face of federal investigation of Tesla [video]. Parent comment

Re:Elon Musk defiant in face of federal investigation of Tes... by Mikeb85 on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @04:41PM (#6771376)
The only place you can realistically put battery packs on an electric car is beneath the floor. They're too heavy, so they need to be kept low or the car will have terrible (and unsafe) handling characteristics.

And crash data is most definitely relevant - how gas cars react to striking similar objects at high speed is a valid comparison.

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Re:Elon Musk defiant in face of federal investigation of Tes... by warble on Wednesday November 20, 2013 @04:52PM (#6771449)
Not true, the Mini-E has them in the back seat, and it handles pretty well. Batteries are heavy, and lower is better like you say as a rule, but it's not the only realistic solution by far.

Also the Tesla battery pack isn't as well compartmentalized as it could be. There are things to be done to the battery pack to cause fire to be less damaging, so between the onboard warning systems, and firewalls, it's not a big deal when the battery does catch fire.

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