SAN FRANCISCO — Attorneys for Tesla Motors Inc. are making the electric car company’s safety record a central issue in securities litigation sparked by a series of vehicle fires in 2013.

The securities suit, filed last year in the Northern District of California, is based on “sensationalist media coverage” of three battery fires and ignores the car’s consistently high safety ratings since its release in June 2012, according to a team of Irell & Manella lawyers out of Los Angeles.