In the face of controversy and questions about Tesla's "spontaneous combustion", Grace Tao, Tesla's vice president of external affairs, said that most spontaneous combustion has a cause and the vehicles do not catch fire for no reason.

Tesla's chances of spontaneous combustion are not very high among all cars, Tao said in an interview with Chinese auto media outlet Dongchedi, adding that fuel cars actually have spontaneous combustion accidents every day, but people may not care much about it.

In January this year, a Tesla Model 3 exploded in an underground garage in Shanghai. Pictures circulated from the scene showed that the car had been burned to a skeleton, surrounded by thick white firefighting powder.

Tesla then said that the preliminary judgment of the cause of the fire was the impact of the high-voltage battery at the bottom of the vehicle triggered internal cell damage and short circuit, which eventually led to the fire.

In addition, the face of owners of Tesla out-of-control complaints, Tao said that the proportion of Tesla out-of-control is very small, while the proportion of owners stepping on the wrong pedal is very high"

In fact, after suffering a string of problems, Tesla is drawing the attention of Chinese regulators.

On February 8, 2021, five departments, including China's General Administration of Market Regulation (GAMR), jointly interviewed Tesla about consumer reactions to abnormal acceleration, battery fires, and vehicle remote upgrade (OTA).

The regulators asked it to strengthen internal management, implement the main responsibility of enterprise quality and safety, effectively maintain social public safety, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

（Photo: CnEVPost）