Elon Musk is still trying to escape the contract he signed to buy Twitter. If he cannot avoid it, he may order Twitter to prevent people from tagging him about the issues they have with their Teslas. The latest episode came from The Colony, Texas, where Nishanth Vallapu asked him for answers after his used 2018 Model S caught fire while charging and destroyed his home, and a gorgeous Triumph motorcycle parked right beside it.
Vallapu tweeted about the event and tagged Musk to try to get an answer for what happened. He said he bought the car one month before the blaze, which took place on June 22. According to the unfortunate Tesla owner, his car was charging when the fire started. The Model S and the Triumph bike “completely melted,” and the roof of his garage collapsed. That was not the only issue he had with his house. According to Vallapu, the fire made him lose his home. In a picture he shared, it seems the fire also affected the kitchen.
The Tesla owner said that he had Tesla Insurance and that the company’s investigators picked up the electric sedan on June 24. Almost three months later, all he heard back was that “they need to investigate.” We’re trying to contact him to learn if Tesla Insurance is paying for his family to stay somewhere else or if the house can still be used.
Photo: Nishanth Vallapu
Although Tesla investors are constantly repeating that EV fires are less frequent than those with combustion-engined cars, blazes involving Tesla vehicles are almost as common as those that affected the Chevrolet Bolt EV. In that case, GM issued a massive recall and replaced the defective battery packs. They usually caught fire while the car was driving or when charging.
After a Model S caught fire in Shanghai in April 2019, Tesla made an over-the-air (OTA) update that capped the voltage of Model S and Model X units. Lawsuits ensued, and Tesla decided to settle the one in the U.S. That was the occasion on which Elon Musk said that Tesla’s policy was “never to give in to false claims, even if we would lose, and never to fight true claims, even if we would win.” In this case, the Tesla CEO said the company was wrong.
Curiously, Tesla was convicted to pay 136,000 Norwegian kroner ($13,677 at the current exchange rate) to around 30 customers in Norway who complained about the same thing. Tesla appealed the decision.
Photo: Nishanth Vallapu
Settling the dispute allowed the EV maker to avoid going to court and dismissing what the customers were accusing it of doing. The main charge was that Tesla was concealing issues with the battery packs that could lead to fires. In court, Tesla would have to prove that was not the case.
Apart from Vallapu’s case, there are many more we have already written about. On November 24, 2020, Usmaan Ahmad’s 2015 Model S started making noises and ignited while being driven in Frisco, Texas. A while later, on December 30, 2020, Yogi Vindum faced more than $1 million in damages to his house in San Ramon, California, when one of his Model Ss caught fire in the garage.
Photo: Nishanth Vallapu
On June 29, 2021, in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, a Model S Plaid burst into flames. On August 22, 2021, at around 2 PM local time, another Model S burst into flames in Guangzhou, China. The same happened to a Model S in Marietta, Georgia, on September 27, 2021. It was on a Tesla Service Center. These are just some examples of similar cases to the one Vallapu has faced. With the same model.
It is time Tesla tells Vallapu, Vindum, Ahmad, and all other customers that saw their cars catch fire what is behind these blazes. On September 28, 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied a petition to investigate why these fires were happening. Perhaps it is time to ask the safety regulator to explore the subject again.
@elonmusk@Tesla the only response i get from your team is that they need to investigate but tesla insurance picked up the vehicle 2 days after incident.
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