Tesla Semi Nonetheless Burning After 3 A.M. Crash Shuts Down Freeway

• A Tesla Semi reportedly caught fireplace round 3 a.m. in Placer County, within the Higher Sacramento space. 
• The freeway has been shut down for hours whereas fireplace crews work to extinguish the blaze. 
• The reason for the fireplace stays unclear. A number of EV battery fires in South Korea have made headlines just lately.

Electrical autos have been within the information currently for the worst doable motive: fires. After a spate of passenger vehicles sparked alarm in South Korea, the newest one occurred in California this morning, resulting in an ongoing shutdown of Interstate 80 within the jap a part of the state.

Native information stories point out an electrical truck believed to be a Tesla Semi in some way caught fireplace round 3:16 a.m. close to the Emigrant Hole space of Placer County within the Sacramento metro space. In accordance with native station KCRA, the roadway has been shut down since with site visitors being diverted elsewhere.

California Freeway Patrol officers have provided “no estimated time for reopening,” however fireplace crews have been seen dumping water onto the burning stays of the Semi for hours. 

A CHP official reached by InsideEVs directed questions to a different workplace, however that outpost has not responded as of this writing. We’ll replace as we study extra. A CHP spokesman on the scene informed KCRA that “it’s hazardous to breathe” within the space across the fireplace as fumes from the burning rig spew into the air. A reporter stated crews plan to let it burn out by itself as they douse it with water. 

Neither Tesla, nor CEO Elon Musk, have addressed the matter as of but on X, which appears to be the corporate’s most well-liked technique of communication nowadays.

As we have now reported beforehand, EV fires are statistically extra uncommon than fires involving inside combustion autos, even with fewer of the previous on the street than the latter. However once they do occur, lithium-ion battery fires are notably nasty blazes that may take appreciable effort and time to extinguish safely. 

The Tesla Semi is understood to have a very massive battery for long-haul trucking responsibility. The five hundred-mile model of the Semi is estimated to have someplace round 850-900 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of battery capability, primarily based on vitality consumption numbers. The official quantity has not been launched. A standard electrical automobile or crossover often has round a 75-85 kWh battery, whereas electrical pickup vehicles have batteries that vary from 123 kWh to 205 kWh. So a 900 kWh battery is actually enormous. 

The long-promised Semi has been seen in testing throughout the nation and is at the moment in use by a small variety of company fleets, together with PepsiCo. The explanation for the fireplace stays unclear. 

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