According to media reports, on the evening of January 5th, a Tesla Model S caught fire while charging at a Tesla Supercharger station in the small town of Pontarlier, France.
Local fire departments received a report and quickly dispatched firefighters to the scene, successfully extinguishing the blaze. Firefighters stated that the source of the fire appeared to originate from a Model S connected to the Supercharger station.
The firefighters monitored the vehicle throughout the night until the morning to ensure that it would not reignite. Local media outlets published a photo of the burned vehicle, showing that the Tesla Model S had been completely destroyed. Tesla is currently investigating the incident, and the charging station has been temporarily closed.
Local media reports indicate that Tesla has sent a technician from Lyon to investigate the issue, and the investigation is ongoing. Firefighters believe the fire was caused by the vehicle's battery pack, but the exact cause is still under investigation.
Last week, there were also reports of a Tesla Cybertruck catching fire in an Atlanta parking lot. This incident occurred on the morning of December 31st at a Tesla store on Church Street in Decatur, Georgia. The fire was quickly extinguished, but not before it had burned the vehicle's interior, as well as the chassis and tires.
On January 1st, another Tesla Cybertruck caught fire in front of the Trump Hotel Tower in Las Vegas, resulting in one death and several injuries. Reports suggest that the U.S. government is investigating the incident.
While electric vehicle batteries can sometimes catch fire, statistics show that their fire rate is not higher than that of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles.
Similar to fires in fossil-fuel vehicles, most electric car fires occur after significant collisions. However, vehicles can also catch fire spontaneously, without external factors. In such cases, it is crucial to investigate and trace the cause of the fire in order to improve the safety of electric vehicles. For example, this occurred during the recall of Chevrolet Bolt EV batteries.
