This is the surprising moment of a ‘self-burning’ Tesla car on a residential street.
Eugenio Mereu witnessed an electric car flashing and billowing black smoke on the side of the road this morning, making him fear the same thing could happen to his identical vehicle.
The 36-year-old said the fire was so strong he could hear it crackling from his house before he recorded it on camera at 9.26am.
He added he couldn’t see anything that might have caused the fire, making him fearful that his Tesla could suffer the same fate.
Mr Mereu’s car happened to match the one now burned to the ground on the street as it was reportedly ‘same car, same colour, same year.’
A glimpse of a Tesla car that ‘self-immolation’ on a residential street
Eugenio Mereu witnessed the burning car and filmed the footage
Londoners describe the car as a Tesla Model Y, which reportedly has a starting price of around £44,990.
Police and three firefighters are said to have attended the scene in the Perth Road residential area, Ilford, north London.
This is not the first time Tesla has “set himself on fire”. In May of this year, another Tesla dramatically erupted in flames on a California highway after it started to ‘shake’.
Bishal Malla, from Elk Grove, was driving on Highway 99 near Cosumnes River Boulevard when he started feeling his electric vehicle start to vibrate and thought he had a flat tire.
However, when he stopped to check, he was surprised to find smoke billowing from under the car.
A website called Tesla Fire, which documents the flaming track record of Elon Musk’s company, claims 204 Tesla fires have been reported in the media.
The Londoner said of the fire: ‘There was a little commotion and I went outside and it was completely on fire. It looks like it’s self-igniting, it really starts a fire on its own.
‘It wasn’t caused by a crash, it wasn’t overheating, there wasn’t anyone nearby, it just self-ignited, it caught fire if there was some kind of damage.
‘It’s scary because I actually had the exact same car, kinda worried that it could catch fire, and a really intense fire.
‘I heard one person screaming and then you could literally hear the fire making a crackling sound.
Mereu said, ‘There was a bit of a commotion and I went outside and it was completely on fire. It looks like it’s burning itself, it’s really starting a fire on its own’
The wider view is of burning smoke rising from the burning Tesla
Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, gestures while attending the Viva Technology conference
‘Imagine, I have the same car, same color, same year, all new. I was like oh my God, that’s concerning.
‘Imagine the owner doesn’t know, obviously they parked it overnight.
“I think there’s also some sort of safety feature on vehicles where the hood opens automatically as a precaution if someone gets stuck inside.
‘Even more fire engines started arriving, more police soon after. Then they started telling people to come back inside and move us, not to cause a scene or make things worse.’
