A video showed a parked Tesla Model S exploding in Shanghai – Quartz
A video that appears to show a white Tesla Model S that explodes in Shanghai, home to the US electric car company's first foreign factory, has been widely shared by Chinese social media platform Weibo, and asked the company to investigate. 19659002] "We immediately sent a team on site, and we support local authorities to establish facts. From what we know now, no one was injured," a Tesla-China spokesman said in an email dismissal.
The video began circulate last night (April 21) and post with hashtag #Tesla self-ignition "or 特斯拉 自燃, has drawn nearly 18 million views from Monday morning.
The 22-second recording showed a sedan in a parking garage that emits smoke from its chassis before they exploded and burst into flames. An Audi car was parked right next to the model S, but it was unclear about the persistent damage. Posted by a user (link in Chinese) called Xiu Jian Cong Ye De Liu Dai from China's northeastern Shandong province, it showed a timestamp on Sunday around 8:15 am local time. The user said that the explosion took place in Shanghai, and wrote in the comments during the post that he received the video from a social media group for Tesla car owners. In the video, the Chinese character "沪 (hu)" can be seen on the disc, which is shorthand for Shanghai. The handle did not immediately respond to quartz questions.
The video was also shared on Twitter last night, but it is unclear whether the handle belongs to the same person who posted it on Weibo.
Last week, a parked Tesla in the US became fire after being transported to a garage in Pennsylvania to investigate its possible role in a fire that broke out in a garage attached to the owner's home. Tesla has also said it looks at the fire.
The Shanghai video comes as Tesla has increased its investment in China, the company's largest foreign market. Construction started earlier this year at the first foreign Gigafactory in Shanghai, the first fully-owned car factory in China. Tesla hopes to start producing by the end of the year, and will produce its model 3 and model Y cars to the $ 2 billion China market.
The facility can help minimize the effects of trade tensions between China and China The US company imports all the cars it sells in China from the United States, and pays fierce import duties compared to foreign brands produced locally through joint ventures. Tesla saw revenue from China last year drop 13% compared to 2017, when tariffs increased prices in China. Meanwhile, Shanghai officials held temporary 1,600 Model 3s over tagging issues.
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