AXA simulates the fire of a Tesla during a pipeauté crash test… but to prove what?

Well, not much really, because other than putting on a good show at its AXA Crash Show, the insurance company is doing nothing but undermining its own credibility.

This show, providing no viable additional insight into the reliability of Teslas, and electric vehicles more broadly, simply led to a Model S being wasted.

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It all starts with a study by the research and prevention department of the insurance company AXA. In the press release, the head of the department, Michael Pfäffli, announces that AXA seeks to prove that accidents involving at least one electric vehicle (EV) cause 50% more damage to the latter, compared to a thermal vehicle. .

The cause, according to Mr. Pfäffli, would be linked in particular to the increased power of EVs, which is moreover to acceleration. It is based on a survey from the AXA Mobility study in which 60% of respondents said that the risk of an accident would be higher with an electric model compared to a thermal one.

All of this smacks of the case, especially when the test video, involving a Tesla Model S, appeared online on August 25. In particular, we see a brand vehicle towed by a cable attached to a Tesla Model Y. The purpose of the demonstration, which takes place in Switzerland in front of 500 people, is to illustrate that the underbody (of the Model S? electrical?) unlike the passenger compartment, would be more vulnerable to collisions.

Nothing very scientific in there, especially when much more reliable tests put forward an almost optimal safety according to the criteria of Euro NCAP in 2022.

In addition, the Model S tested in the video is… without a battery. While the weight of these same batteries is around up to a quarter of the total mass of an EV, and AXA has not specified that it has ballasted said vehicle, this is becoming embarrassing. The impact and result of the collision would therefore necessarily be different with a normally equipped car.

Demonstrate the risk of fire caused by an EV battery… without a battery in the test vehicle

We should add that, still in this crash test, AXA wishes to show the danger posed by fires in the batteries of electric vehicles. Let’s remember once again that the model present in the video does not have it (!), and that the fire visible in the second part of the shoot is in fact triggered… with pyrotechnics.

Contacted by 24Auto.dethe AXA office in Cologne (Germany) responded that “ for safety reasons, it was not possible to light a real battery fire during an event with around 500 people, which is why a fire with pyrotechnics was staged “. If the insurance company seeks to justify potential price increases for its insurance covering electric vehicles, it is not with such trickery that it risks convincing anyone.

Sources: 24Auto.de, Electrek