Tesla Semi electric truck caught on fire on highway

A Tesla Semi electric truck has caught on fire on a highway near the California-Nevada border, according to the CAL FIRE Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit.

Despite frequent media reports, there’s no statistical evidence that electric vehicles catch on fire at a higher rate than fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

However, they are a relatively new technology, and they sometimes catch on fire for different reasons than gasoline-powered vehicles, like a battery defect in the Bolt EV’s case. Those instances should obviously be investigated and reported.

Now, we learn that a Tesla Semi, Tesla’s class 8 electric truck, has caught on fire in California near the Nevada border.

The CAL FIRE Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit first reported the fire:

Tesla electric commercial vehicle fire, hazardous materials incident due to the Lithium-Ion batteries involved. Minimal spread to the vegetation with aircraft utilization to confine fire until it is safe to build control lines.

There’s no word about how the fire started, but no crash was reported. It’s not even clear if the truck caught on fire first or the cargo, as the firefighter mentioned a “li-ion battery fire”, but Tesla’s trucks are known to carry battery packs from Tesla’s Nevada factory to its Fremont, California factory.

The fire lasted hours and later, a hazardous material crew was spotted recovering what was left of the truck for Tesla:

If it’s the actual truck that caught fire on its own, it will likely be investigated by the authorities as there are only a few dozen Tesla Semi trucks on the road right now, most of them used in Tesla’s own operations for testing.