( CNN ) -- There were headlines when one of Tesla 's Model S electric cars caught fire in late October after the battery case was pierced by a piece of road debris . There were bigger headlines , and much speculation , when within six weeks , a second and then a third Model S fire occurred in the wake of accidents . The fires are regrettable and must be investigated . No one is suggesting otherwise . We all need to know whether there 's a flaw in the Model S that must be corrected . But to use these incidents to question the viability of Tesla as a company is wrong . This is a company that has achieved the remarkable in launching a new automobile , a new propulsion technology and a new automobile manufacturing enterprise in just a few short years and against very long odds . Tesla 's brilliant but often blustery chairman , Elon Musk , quickly came to the defense of his company 's groundbreaking vehicle , going so far as to claim that Tesla asked the government to investigate the cause of the fires -- a claim that National Highway Traffic Safety Agency Administrator David Strickland disputes . NHTSA is investigating , Strickland said , but the agency made that decision on its own , with no request from the automaker . News about the fires has been overtaken by the announcement of NHTSA 's investigation , the squabble between Musk and Strickland and the tumble in the price of Tesla 's stock as investors began distancing themselves from a company that until those three fires had been a Wall Street darling . The whole thing is a shame . This has become much more than a query into a very few vehicle fires . Electric cars have been politicized and many are taking the Tesla fires as a sign that electric vehicles are too new , too different and too dangerous to be allowed on our roads . Additionally , some in the investment community and a few politicians critical of Tesla and other electric vehicle developers for using government loans have made the fires a referendum on Tesla itself . ( Tesla , which received loans from the Department of Energy 's new technology program , repaid its loans nine years early . ) Tesla has won the backing of two big players , Toyota and Daimler , which have ownership stakes in the company . Whether it remains independent or eventually is absorbed by another carmaker , it is unlikely to end up on the scrap heap . It may transpire that Tesla needs to redesign its cars -- or at least the location or shielding of the batteries -- in order to help prevent further fires . But to turn that into an indictment of electric vehicles in general would be wrong as well . The two Tesla fires in the United States occurred when their battery cases were pierced by metal objects struck when the vehicles were moving at high speeds . The third fire , in Mexico , occurred when a speeding driver lost control and hit a stone wall . Yet while a Tesla 's battery is directly beneath the car 's passenger cabin , the flames were channeled to the front , where an engine would be if Teslas had gas engines . This is part of the Model S safety design . The passenger cabins did n't burn . The cars ' safety systems warned the drivers to pull over and get out because something was amiss . The same type of accident involving a conventional gasoline-fueled vehicle might not have resulted in a fire . But think of the damage a hefty metal trailer hitch or length of scrap iron could do after piercing a conventional vehicle 's relatively thin floor and entering the passenger cabin . It 's not a pretty picture . The location of the Tesla 's battery pack may well have saved one or both drivers from terrible injury in the road debris incidents , even though the cars burned . Meantime , a typical conventional car with 15 gallons of gas on board carries the explosive power of 210 sticks of dynamite . But most of us drive around all day long blissfully ignoring that deadly potential . Gasoline is the devil we know , and familiarity lets us overlook its flaws . Electric cars , though , are new and different and challenge the status quo . That makes them a target for suspicion and for criticism . We are not comfortable with things we do n't know . We wo n't know until NHTSA completes its investigation whether the design of the Model S is inadequate . We should wait until then before contemplating obituaries -- for Tesla or for the electric vehicle . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John O'Dell .
Tesla 's Model S electric cars have caught fire three times in recent months . John O'Dell : We need to know whether there 's a flaw that needs to be corrected . Comment: O'Dell : Electric cars are new and different , but they should n't be target for suspicion .