Tesla Driver Said He Broke a Window to Escape Electric-Car Fire

• The driver of a Product Y that caught fire in Vancouver stated he kicked the window out to escape.
• Tesla doors have an crisis launch option, but the driver reported it was much too tricky to determine out.
• The incident was one particular of a few Tesla fires in modern days.

A Tesla driver claimed he had to kick out the window of his Design Y to escape a hearth soon after the electric car or truck missing power in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Friday.

Jamil Jutha told CTV Information Vancouver that the motor vehicle shut down while he was stopped in close proximity to an intersection. He claimed that it lost all energy to its electronic elements and that smoke started to fill the car by the air vents.

“The doorways would not open up. The windows would not go down,” he advised CTV News, introducing that he panicked.

“I kicked via the window, climbed out, named 911 right away,” he claimed.

Jutha and Tesla did not answer to a ask for for remark from Insider.

All Teslas have a handbook launch selection for opening the doors in an crisis. The Model Y’s emergency-reaction guidebook states it has a mechanical release tackle in the vicinity of the window switches.

Jutha advised CTV News that the crisis option was too difficult for him to figure out in his haste to escape the car and that he hopes other drivers just take the time to master how to operate it. He mentioned that he’d owned the Product Y for a couple of months and that he isn’t going to count on to acquire a further Tesla.

The outlet reported that firefighters were being investigating the induce of the fire. The Vancouver fire office did not straight away answer to a request for remark forward of publication.

A bystander at a close by distillery took a 12-moment online video that showed smoke filling the auto, flames mounting in the entrance of the car, and firefighters dousing the Tesla. In the video, Jutha can be listened to expressing he’d remaining his golf golf equipment in the motor vehicle.

The incident is a person of a handful of Tesla fires in recent days. On Monday, a community Fox affiliate in Brooklyn, Illinois, reported that a Tesla had caught hearth. On May 14, a Model 3 caught fireplace in California City, California. The driver, Ediel Ruiz, instructed a community information outlet that the fireplace begun near the rear of the automobile, less than his 4-thirty day period-old’s motor vehicle seat.

Electric powered-automobile fires are not common, but they can be tough to set out for the reason that of the chemistry of lithium-ion batteries, which burn up hotter than gas counterparts. A 2022 report from AutoinsuranceEZ that analyzed data from the Countrywide Transportation Safety Board, the Bureau of Transportation Data, and Remembers.gov prompt that EVs ended up normally less probably to capture fireplace than combustion-engine automobiles.

Very last 12 months, Common Motors recalled about 140,000 Chevrolet Bolt EVs, citing fireplace risk. Earlier this month, Tesla recalled 130,000 autos over considerations that the touchscreens could overheat.