From extensive research on what most consumers would prefer Tesla to improve on, most users preferred to have an improvement on the armor of the vehicle. The good news is that Tesla recently announced that they had taken steps towards implementing this. The electric sedans that are produced now by the company come equipped with a triple-shield aluminium and titanium shield. These are designed in a way that makes it easy to protect the under body and prevent puncturing of the underside and precipitate fires. Despite the vehicle being under investigation earlier for its failure to prevent battery fires, the transportation agency eventually dropped their charges after the release of this upgrade.

This new shield has been reported to deflect a wide range of objects in the artificially controlled simulations that have been conducted on the car. One of the most notable tests carried out on the Tesla was letting it run over a spear implanted on the road and the body did not display any sparks during the contact. Other objects used in the test include concrete blocks, and an automotive alternator, all of which were deflected from the vehicle.

The vehicle boasts of triple shield architecture. The first layer of the shield is a rounded hollow bar that is made from aluminium. This is meant to completely deflect objects with the magnitude of a three ball trailer. The next layer in the shield is a high strength titanium plate that protects the front under body components. These two layers alone are enough to deflect 80% of the objects that come into contact with the vehicle most of the time.

The third shield is the solid aluminium extrusion that further absorbs the impact energy and gives an additional layer of protection. This layer was added to take care of the rare debris that often remains intact after contact. In general, these shields have about 0.1% impact on the range of the car and have no effect on the ride or handling of the car. Further tests carried out indicated that the additional protection does not have any effect on the drag or lift of the car.

Despite the blown out headline coverage that suggested that the Model S was not safe, the company states that the chances of Model S actually catching fire are 1 in 8000. This is five times lower the chances of an average gasoline powered car catching fire. This means that we can comfortably say that the car is by far safer than most of the gas powered cars running along our roads.