According to The Times, insurance company AXA has been forced to apologise after releasing misleading videos.

Tesla was the focus of creating a “false impression” about the safety of Teslas. It comes after releasing a video of a crash test in which a Tesla Model S rolls over and explodes.

Seeing is believing

The video, released in late August, shows the car leaping over several obstacles and flipping onto its roof. In the simulated crash test, the car then bursts into flames.

Axa has now admitted that the “fire” was staged using pyrotechnics. Also, the Tesla featured did no even have  its battery pack or high-voltage electrical systems onboard.

Weakest link

The company state that the point of the exercise was to show that an electric vehicle is vulnerable if its undercarriage gets damaged or scraped in certain types of crash. It hypothesised that in the type of crash demonstrated an “Achilles heel” for EVs. This is that batteries in EVs are not adequately protected. Such a hypothesis is widely disputed, EV underbodies are generally well protected and fires following such rare accidents are not a common occurrence. Despite a number of high profile press reports in recent years about fires in EVs in the US, they are in fact very rare.

And again

It is not the only misleading video by the insurance giant. Another crash test involving a Volkswagen e-Golf and a combustion-powered Golf sought to demonstrate that EVs cause more damage due to their extra weight in a crash.

On September 1, the firm issued a public letter of apology. This was for having potentially misled the public about the inherent dangers of EVs.  It stated the company believes in the future of EVs.

The company admitted the Tesla would not have suffered the type of damage that could have led it to catching fire even had its battery been intact. This undermines Axa’s initial claim about the underbody representing an “Achilles heel” for EVs.