Model 3

Make
Tesla
Segment
Sedan

The owner of a Tesla Model 3 recently received a very unusual and unexpected message taped to their car. Oliver James had parked his Model 3 in a residential garage and plugged it in for charging. Totally normal, right? Yes, but an unknown neighbor felt the charging vehicle was a safety hazard and decided to take action.

Sometime during that hot day (86 degrees Fahrenheit), this individual left a note taped close to the vehicle's charging port (after unplugging it) that stated the following: "Overcharging in this heat will blow up this battery. Google it!!! Tesla Battery Blow Up." Signed, "Concern Resident" (sic).

It's nice that this individual cares about things catching on fire (who doesn't?) but they clearly have no clue how Tesla's charging system works. The battery management system won't allow overcharging for that very reason. Once it detects a full charge, the charging stops. The system works exactly as it should and Tesla's data backs this up: there was just one fire for every 205 million miles traveled last year.

Teslarati went one step further and dug up data from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the US Department of Transportation. The findings are quite interesting and informative.

There's one vehicle fire for every 19 million miles traveled - and that includes combustion-engined vehicles. In other words, EVs are less likely to catch on fire. But there are still many people out there who believe EVs are dangerous because they're liable to suddenly ignite.

Whoever this "concern resident" (sic) is, they were not only mistaken about how EVs work, but they also had no right to touch someone else's private property without permission. They could have easily left their note (despite it being factually incorrect) underneath one of the car's windshield wipers, for example. James still would have seen it and laughed at this person's lack of knowledge.