A Tesla Fire Erupts Out Of Nowhere

A Tesla Fire consumed a first-generation Model S in China and we have no idea why. On April 21, 2019, a Tesla enthusiast posted a video on Twitter of a Model S smoking and then erupting into a huge ball of fire.

Twitter user @ShanghaiJayin has since removed the video from the platform.

Why did he remove the Tesla fire video? He should have left it up and started more conversations about this random electric vehicle (EV) eruption.

We took a screenshot of the video before it was taken down. You can see the smoke start to emerge from the undercarriage of the car. The Audi in the photo did not stand a chance. The Tesla fire consumed the Audi in the parking garage as well.

Tesla Fire Screenshot

From thedrive.com:

Details are scarce, but it shows a Tesla Model S just chillin’ in a car park when out of nowhere, it goes from 0 to 100 incredibly fast as a plume of white smoke comes out from under the car. Naturally, in most situations, with smoke comes fire and shortly after the white plume became visible, the Model S immediately erupted into a ball of fire. “Good or bad, negative or positive, I will post anything about Tesla or EVs in China. This happened today in Shanghai, China. First-generation Tesla Model S caught fire underground car park,” wrote the Twitter user.

We should be starting more conversations about how to make EVs safe and how to put out an electric car fire. Because in recent news we learned that only 25% of firefighters have had some kind of EV training to know what to do in case of a fire. Additionally, a BMW i8 was recently dumped in a dumpster full of water because responders couldn’t put out the fire from the electric supercar.

Companies like Tesla and Rivian need to make sure these vehicles are ready for real-world use. Electric vehicles are becoming more popular and with more of them on the road, they are bound to join the crash statistics along with every other car on the road. New battery technology is revolutionary, but it needs to withstand impacts and real-world temperatures, both high and low that cars are subjected to around the world.

Elon Musk did respond to the conversation on Twitter:

Do you buy Elon’s response? I’m not sure that I do. He seemed comfortable defending the Tesla fire because it had zero fatalities. I’m worried that there was a fire at all. And yes internal combustion cars catch fire. But not randomly. Even the infamous fiery Ford Pinto didn’t combust unexpectedly. You had to bump the gas tank first.

I don’t know about you, but I will be keeping my distance and parking far away from Teslas for now on. We need to make sure EVs are not ticking fire bombs. And we should do it ASAP.