Electric car maker Tesla recently confirmed that the company is launching an investigation over an incident involving one of its flagship cars. A video of a Tesla car exploding into flames have been circulating on a number of Chinese social media platforms. The incident has flamed concerns over the safety of Tesla cars.
In a statement released to the public, the car manufacturer said that it had already sent a team to investigate the incident. Tesla added on the statement that there were no reported casualties as a direct result of the explosion.
On the video, a stationary car erupted into flames in a parking lot. A number of news outlets have yet to confirm whether the car is a Tesla car or not. However, many social media users have repeatedly singled out Tesla as the maker of the car in the video. Other footages also showed that the fire destroyed an Audi car parked next to the Tesla.
A translation of Tesla's statement posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo reads, "After learning about the incident in Shanghai, we immediately sent the team to the scene last night."
The time stamp on the video shows that the incident took place on Sunday night local time. This is not the first time that Tesla cars had burst into flames for no apparent reason. In 2018, British TV director Michael Morris' car burst into flames. The same incident involving a Tesla Model S also took place in France in 2016. In 2013, a number of Tesla Model S cars also caught fire.
This is the latest incident of a Tesla car bursting into flames, and it came at a time when the company is ramping up its presence in China. In January, Tesla decided to recall more than 14,000 Model S cars in China. The company said that the recall is part of its global automotive sector's effort to replace Takata airbags which many experts deemed dangerous.
In a recent report, China appeared to be the world's largest electric car market eclipsing that of Europe and the United States combined. It would appear that Chinese car buyers have an affinity to buying electric vehicles and Tesla, as one of the pioneers of this particular technology, is in a prime spot to dominate the particular sector of the Chinese car market.
