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What about other EVs? Nissan has about 4 times as many Leafs on the road worldwide (~80k vs ~20k), and the only reference I can find to a fire was one that was destroyed in a forest fire in Colorado. Interestingly, while the car itself was burnt to a crisp, the battery pack supposedly remained "structurally intact." What is Tesla doing worse than Nissan? Is it just the relative size/capacity of the battery packs? Different chemistry? Structural protection? Not enough data points to be statistically significant yet?

http://insideevs.com/a-seriously-burned-out-nissan-leaf/
http://www.torquenews.com/1083/why-does-tesla-model-s-catch-fire-crashes-not-chevy-volt-and-nissan-leaf
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/business/tsunami-reveals-durability-of-nissans-leaf.html?_r=0

Please. Would you retrofit a car and test it? Air bags wouldn't keep the cabin from collapsing in on the driver, they would only keep the driver from bouncing around inside a cabin in some state of "intact". My Chevy Volt has 10 airbags, including knee airbags and ceiling rail bags that extends back into the rear seat. But they would be near useless in a decent crash without help from the huge pillars and crumple zones. Also, the 430 lbs of battery right between the wheels makes the car neigh unto untippable - and heavier where it counts than most other cars. Unfortunately for some. http://insideevs.com/video-owner-testimonial-shows-how-safe-chevy-volt-actually-is/ http://brightonhovehub.blogspot.com/2013/08/fatal-crash-occurs-in-brighton-twp-with.html

Thinking food... The Corvette was introduced in 1953, but it didn't turn a profit until 1958. The Volt is in it's 4th year and doing fine...
1979 was the peak for Corvette sales at 53,807, and have declined every year since.
The Volt just passed 53K units
The Volt did outsell the Corvette in 2012, and is doing even better in 2013... Volume with a profitable car, vs profit on few Halo cars?
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/06/volt-v-vette/ or http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/

Don't oversell your straw man. The $95,000 S Class is more expensive and quite a bit more luxurious.

You and I both know that people in the market for a model S are looking for a top end luxury car and all that comes with that. They're going to want the leather seats, power everything, navigation with concierge service, sophisticated "glass cockpit" LCD touch screens, automatic parking and polished walnut burl inlay. The loaded price for the Model S is $96,000 (after tax credit) which puts it squarely in competition with the Mercedes S class for top end luxury. Even the base price model at $71,000 is well into luxury car territory. These are cars for the 1%, period.

Tesla just repaid its $465M loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program set up under the G.W. Bush administration

What was the total amount of interest received? I question whether it was enough to justify the risks that we took. Tesla succeeded but they very well could have failed too (they still might). Indeed, several other taxpayer investments in alternative energy did fail, notably Solyndra. If we didn't receive enough interest to justify the risks that we took when we loaned money to Tesla then we still lost because we could have earned the same amount elsewhere for less risk or more for the same amount of risk.

Your sneering tone about "appearing green" ignores the genuine increase in efficiency from an electric drive.

The people driving these cars aren't concerned about efficiency. They have enough money that they don't care how much fuel for the Mercedes would have cost or how much less efficient the drive is. Indeed, they're typically far more concerned with horsepower and to a lesser extent 0-60 times. What they want is a large and luxurious sedan with a powerful motor that accelerates them quickly onto the highway. Efficiency is the least of their concerns.

ignoring the increasing role of cleaner natural gas in USA's electricity generating mix, and that many buyers will install solar PV to reduce their carbon footprint further.

Natural gas will come back under price pressure again as more commercial vehicle fleets, with known routes and fueling locations, switch to realize cost savings over diesel. As for reducing carbon footprint, this is something that mostly wealthier Americans in the top 10% income brackets worry about or at least are willing to pay for. The rest are just getting by and don't have the luxury of worrying about carbon footprints or being green, except perhaps in an abstract sense. They're worried about their jobs and retirement and to a lesser extent their health care, so green is way down on their list of spending priorities and they won't be installing solar panels on the roof because even with tax credits they cannot afford it.

Meanwhile a Mercedes E-Class (is everyone driving that a "limousine whatever" too?) is a lot slower and at around 25 mpg will consume 15 tons of gasoline over 120,000 miles.

That argument might resonate with Mercedes buyers who tend to be wealthier and therefore would care more about the environment because they're in a position to afford luxury goods. However, the Mercedes E class is also offered in a hybrid configuration for those buyers who are concerned about their carbon footprint or being seen as "green" in a chic sort of way.

I am really horribly surprised that this isn't mentioned more.

Just 4 months ago Wanxiang offered $450M for 80% of A123. Now Wanxiang got it for $260M. A123 lost it's creditors quite a large chunk of money and now Wanxiang gets control of A123 debt free.

http://insideevs.com/wanxiang-takes-control-of-a123-again-as-it-wins-bankruptcy-auction/

A123 has been horribly mismanaged from the start. People have been clamoring for their cells for years - but they wouldn't sell to anyone but OEMs - so many people took to disassembling packs from drills or more recently buying them off the grey market (eBay).

Their batteries are very good, but they have been plagued by bad business decisions and some bad luck (like the big batch of defective cells they sold to Fiskar costing $55M to replace).

I would have rather seen A123 tech been bought by JCI rather than Wanxiang - I can only hope that they are able to sort out A123s problems and finally get their product to market successfully.

The Volt is selling just fine. There's a real reason why the Hammtrack plant is closing for a month and it has nothing to do with the Volt.

Chevrolet Volt Assembly Plant In Hamtramck Idled A Month. But Not Why You Are Thinking

Most people are projecting the Volt to have it's best sales month ever for August. It's doing quite well for a 1st gen plug-in. I expect the 2nd generation to address a lot of the shortcomings of the current Volt (primarily a bit tight on space in the rear seats and fuel economy could be better when the gas engine does run).