A Model S has been destroyed by a blaze at a body shop in Hangzhou, China.
Electrek claims that the damaged battery pack of the Tesla caught fire late at night while it was up on a lift. The Hangzhou Fire Command Center quickly responded to calls, cut through one of the shop’s garage doors at approximately 1:45 a.m. in the morning and extinguished the blaze.
Also Read: Recent Tesla Fires Could Hurt EV Sales, Analysts Suggest
According to a local Chinese news outlet, “after the firefighters broke the shutters, they found that the building was full of smoke and the visibility was very low. After searching, it was found that there were flames and black smoke under the hood of a Tesla. The meter box next to it was also on fire, and the firefighters immediately began to extinguish the fire.”
Tesla has acknowledged that the car triggered the blaze and revealed that the its battery pack had “significant water damage” prior to the incident. It then blamed the shop, which wasn’t an official Tesla service center but rather a third-party body shop, for not properly handling the pack.
A number of Teslas have been involved in fires throughout 2019, ultimately prompting the car manufacturer to release a software update back in May to adjust charge and thermal management settings to help protect the battery and improve battery longevity. Particularly worrying footage emerged back in late April when a security camera from inside a Shanghai parking garage captured the moment a parked Model S exploded and burst into flames.