French insurance company AXA has made a u-turn following (fake) crash tests with a Tesla car. The insurance had published spectacular images of a burning Tesla, only it turned out they had laid the fire. AXA today released a statement saying they were sorry if their campaign had been misleading.
“We regret if we have given a wrong impression or caused misunderstandings about electric mobility,” AXA said, following a s*** storm in the media.
German portal 24auto.de had uncovered that AXA published essentially fake images. While it looked like a Tesla car undergoing a crash test and burst into flames, the insurance company later admitted that the test cars were tested without batteries. Not only that, the testers had ignited the fire later to “illustrate” the safety hazards an EV battery could pose.
When caught, AXA said the batteries had been removed for the safety of guests watching the tests. This was also their “excuse” to say that for anyone watching the live presentation, it was clear that staff activated pyrotechnics.
Obviously, that explanation was insufficient.
In today’s statement, AXA found, in retrospect, “that the test and the communication about it could be misleading, especially for interested parties who were not on-site during the crash tests, where the procedures were appropriately commented on and classified,” AXA said. “The test, which was intended to illustrate an assumed risk scenario, should have been set up differently,” they said.
Entirely differently since AXA had not made the “tests” out of the blue at least. The insurer claims their data shows that drivers of electric cars cause 50 per cent more collisions with damage to their own vehicles than those of conventional combustion engines, which was what they may have wanted to show.
However, AXA did not compare vehicles by segment – nor noted actual battery fires at all – but electric cars can indeed accelerate quicker, which may be too fast for some drivers – human error, in short.
We’d like to add that Tesla and other electric vehicles have been tested by most auto safety agencies worldwide and usually receive the highest safety ratings.
electrek.co (initial fake tests), 24auto.de (first uncoverage), axa.ch (apology)
Keyword: AXA apologises for fake Tesla fire and crash test