A Tesla Model S owner in Dallas alleges that his vehicle began erupting flames after he heard a number of metallic bangs from the vehicle while pulling off a suburban thoroughfare.
The Washington Post reports that a Tesla Model S owner named Usmaan Ahmad heard metallic bangs coming from his vehicle as he pulled off a suburban Dallas thoroughfare last month. Ahmad pulled over and moments later his five-year-old vehicle began shooting flames.
Ahmad, 41, stated that the sound he heard was like “if you were to drop an axle of a normal car,” but the vehicle was fully intact. As Ahmad stood on the side of the road watching his vehicle, the car burst into flames concentrated around the front passenger-side wheel. “This was shooting out like a flamethrower,” said Ahmad who works in strategy and business development for a health-care system.
Ahmad is far from the first person to face this issue with Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles. Experts believe that the issue is related to the battery which raises questions about the safety and durability of electric vehicles as they age.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is evaluating Ahmad’s vehicle in Frisco, Texas, and has contacted Tesla over the matter according to NHTSA spokesman Sean Rushton. The NHTSA opened an investigation into alleged batter defects that could cause fires in older Tesla sedans and SUVs last year.
A lawsuit and defect petition that urged the NHTSA to launch the probe alleges that Tesla manipulated its battery software in older vehicles to reduce the risk of fire, lowering the range and lengthening charging times in an attempt to address an undisclosed defect. The attorney filing the suit on behalf of Tesla owners cited an “alarming number of car fires” that appeared to happen spontaneously.
Read more at the Washington Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com