A Tesla Model 3 was reduced to a charred, metal frame after it mysteriously went up in flames in California over the weekend...
Photo: Getty Images
The incident happened on Saturday in California City, where owner Ediel Ruiz was attending a graduation celebration. After receiving a car alarm notification on his phone, Ruiz went outside to check on the vehicle -- and found it to be surrounded by smoke...
When he opened the back door, a wall of flames came rushing out, he said.
Unfortunately, the car ended being a total loss.
"Luckily, it didn't happen while we were driving," Ruiz said.
But this incident doesn't mark the first time an electric vehicle has been destroyed by a fire...
Robert Swaim, founder of howitbroke.com, says batteries in electric cars can spontaneously combust after just two years of use.
"When we get into that two years within being new, we find that the fires, almost half of them happen when a car is either parked or on a charger — not involved in an accident," Swaim says.
And because the battery is located on the bottom of the car, extinguishing electric car fires often takes more time than it would to put out a fire in a gas-powered vehicle, he adds.