Tesla Fire In France Cracked; Bad Electrical Connection To Blame

Sep 14, 2016 05:29 AM EDT | Anne Khristine Coleman

A story of a good test drive gone wrong, Tesla Model S 90D caught fire in Biarritz, France four weeks ago. The test drive was supposed to be part of the summer's Electric Road Trip Tour and said machinery was one of the featured cars.

Fox News shared that an electrical connection in the vehicle was "improperly tightened," quoting a Tesla spokesperson.

Human error?

It was reported in Electrek that before the vehicle was seen in flames, the Tesla employee, the driver, and one other passenger (which were potential customers) heard violent noises from the car's insides and was given a signal from the dashboard, hinting a 'battery charging' problem.

Good news is, the three of them were able to get out of the car before it erupted into flames. Later, the faulty electrical connection was found to have been installed a human worker rather than being done by the usual machinery.

Firefighters immediately came to the rescue to control the situation, putting out the fire moments later. The car, sad to say, wasn't recovered after the incident. Despite the investigation, efforts to pinpoint the mishap's cause stays in vain.

A Telsa spokesman has released a statement about the incident.

"We are working with the authorities to establish the facts of the incident and offer our full cooperation. The passengers are all unharmed. They were able to safely exit the vehicle before the incident occurred," the Tesla spokesman said. 

Safety Issues

Earlier this year, a similar incident which happened to a Model S in Norway. The vehicle was said to also have experienced charging problems. It can also be noted that back in 2013, as reported by MSN, similar electric vehicles were destroyed in the fire after emitting a loud noise as the cars suffered a punctured battery in full speed.

This incident prompted Tesla to add a titanium shield the battery pack's bottom which could have been the reason why fewer cases of cars caught on fire appeared in the news, that is, except the one incident in France.

Gas-powered car fires are still more widely reported than electric car fires.

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