Tesla stock tumbles after Model S catches fire

After the article pumped up the gravity of the fire, I had to check out the video for rubbernecking value, but I was not prepared for how underwhelmed I was going to be. That was a pretty mild fire. I've personally seen several worse fires from gasoline engine cars. This is a real reach and I would expect shares to rise from this. Even if the batteries do really have some issue with difficulty being put out, what's the big deal. Once a fire has progressed to that severity, the car is going to be totalled whether or not it burns for longer and is hard to put out. Furthermore, if the cause is just a piece of metal, that's a much easier problem to solve with a protective metal plan then lets say a fundamental problem in their battery tech.

It's a good thing gasoline doesn't catch fire otherwise we would all be in trouble.

Annoying that the article tries to connect the fire to the batteries because other electric car fires involved batteries. It certainly could be battery related, but the fire seems forward enough that it wouldn't be my first suspect.

Li-ion batteries catch fire sometimes. So do gasoline, hydrogen, and any other fuel that could reasonably power an automobile.