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A Tesla Model S Caught Fire During a Test Drive in France

By
Madeline Farber
Madeline Farber
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By
Madeline Farber
Madeline Farber
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 16, 2016, 12:07 PM ET
Assembly Of Tesla Model S Electric Automobiles  At  A Tesla Motors Inc. Factory
Bloomberg — Getty Images

This story has been updated to reflect comment from Tesla.

A Tesla Model S caught fire during a test drive in France on Monday.

The vehicle supposedly made a loud noise and sent a warning on the dashboard that there was a problem with charging, Electrek reports. The Tesla (TSLA) employee then told the driver to pull the car over and had all passengers exit the vehicle.

Only moments later, the vehicle was reportedly engulfed in flames.

A Reddit user posted a picture of the vehicle in flames on Monday:

Model S spontaneous fire during customer test drive in France
byu/3dkSdkvDskReddit inteslamotors

Electrek reports that the incident occurred in Biarritz, France.

When firefighters arrived to control the fire, the vehicle was already totally destroyed, according to Electrek. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

“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,” a Tesla spokesperson told Fortune.

 

This isn’t the first report of a Tesla vehicle catching on fire. In 2014, three separate Tesla vehicles caught fire after involvements in a collision, sparking the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open an inquiry. Only the year before, Tesla recalled 29,000 charging adapters for its 2013 Model S electric cars because of a potential fire hazard.

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By Madeline Farber
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