A new Tesla Model S Plaid EV burst into flames Tuesday as its owner was driving it, an attorney for the driver said, as first reported by Reuters.
The $129,900 car was only three days old after Tesla had launched it just a few days earlier in June. The driver made it out of the vehicle but had to force the driver’s door open to do so, said his attorney Mark Geragos of Geragos & Geragos in the report.
After the man cleared the vehicle, it moved another 40 feet and then burst into a fireball near the owner’s home in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, the attorney said. Geragos could not be reached separately by Fierce Electronics to comment.
Tesla did not respond to a request to comment made by Fierce Electronics. Tesla CEO Elon Musk in June said the Plaid model was “faster than any Porsche, safer than any Volvo” and in April had noted the S and X models had a new battery pack. “It took quite a bit of development to ensure that the battery of the new S/X is safe,” he said on a conference call. “There were more challenges than expected in developing the new version.”
On Friday, Musk did not mention the report of the Pennsylvania fire in a tweet sent about 9 a.m. ET that read: “Congrats Tesla Team on over 200,000 car built & delivered in Q2, despite many challenges!!”
Reuters reported that local fire authorities had posted on Facebook about the Pennsylvania Tesla fire but deleted the post, which said they had to cool down the batteries to ensure complete extinguishment.
Lithium-ion batteries used in EVs have been a cause of concern for fire officials and federal safetly agencies that worry the chemical reaction in such batteries can be hard to extinguish and can be put firefighters and occupants of some EVs at danger. Many EV advocates are anxiously awaiting the day when a solid state battery can be produced at scale for use in EVs. So far, it is expensive to build a solid state battery but research is underway by many companies, and a production-grade solid state battery could be produced in large numbers as early as 2023.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in an email to Fierce Electronics that it is in touch with relevant agencies and Tesla to “gather information about the incident…If data or investigations show a defect or an inherent risk to safety exists, NHTSA will take action as appropriate to protect the public.”
In May, the National Transportation Safety Board said a 2019 Tesla Model S crash into a tree that killed two occupants resulted in damage to the front of the car’s high-voltage lithium-ion battery case where a fire started that destroyed the car.
RELATED: Tesla fatal crash report points to damaged EV battery case where fire started
General Motors recently announced it will install new EV battery diagnostics onboard of all future EVs after a recall of 69,000 Bolt hatchbacks from 2017 to 2019. Five had caught fire and two people suffered smoke inhalation.
RELATED: GM to install onboard battery diagnostics on all future EVs to predict fires
RELATED: How electric vehicles are made safer from fire, electrocution