It's a smart PR move in either scenario. It's unlikely this will matter if he is wrong.

If he is correct, this will become an even larger main stream news story and there is a good chance that his prescience will be picked up and included in how it is reported.

More importantly, if this becomes a major story, he has preempted the inevitable look at other products (tesla) which include li-ion batteries by describing the distinction between the two. This could become a major shitstorm that Tesla gets rolled into but by making this statement he's getting out in front of it and shaping how that story will be told.

If he is wrong, the batteries are fine and there is no story.

No one ever remembers the predictions you got wrong, just the ones you got right. It's the basis of all punditry.

Which were all urban legends or misquotes, though.

an MIT professor already backs up what he is saying, he is not on his own with his opinion

Not just any MIT prof-- Sadoway is an expert metallurgist and leading researcher on energy storage in batteries. The article is also incorrect: Sadoway is part of the Materials Science Engineering Department.

As an aside, his intro chemistry lectures are excellent, entertaining, and available online. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/materials-science-and-engineering...

Do batteries start working differently when they are placed in planes?

Well, they might do - temperature, pressure etc.

Eh, I can't imagine either Prof Sadoway or Musk is only familiar with batteries at room temperature at sea level.

...and on what basis do you make that claim?

Is this like that magic ink that patents are printed in that makes inventions something entirely different when you add "in planes" or "on the Internet" to them?