Porsche Taycan catches fire in Florida
An all-electric Porsche Taycan in Florida caught fire on Sunday, the company has confirmed to The Verge. It’s the first known case of a Taycan catching fire, and Porsche says the cause is unknown at this time. No one was hurt in the fire, though significant damage was apparently done to both the car and the garage.
Porsche would not specify where the fire took place in Florida, but it said that the car belonged to a customer and that it was informed of the fire through its customer care line. (Footage of the fire also went viral over the weekend.) Porsche started delivering Taycans in the US at the end of 2019.
“On Sunday, 16th February we were made aware of an incident at a residential address in Florida where one of our cars was parked overnight,” Porsche spokesperson Calvin Kim said in an email to The Verge. “We are investigating and we remain ready to assist if called upon. No one was harmed in this incident, and it’s too early to speculate on the cause until the investigation has concluded.”
While there’s no evidence that electric cars catch fire with the kind of regularity that internal combustion cars do, close attention has been paid to incidents like this one as the technology becomes increasingly common. For what it’s worth, pretty much every high-profile electric vehicle that’s been released has had at least one report of a fire. A Jaguar I-Pace caught fire in late 2018. A Hyundai Kona EV erupted in the middle of 2019. Some automakers have even taken action. Audi recalled a few hundred E-Trons shortly after the electric SUV started shipping because of a risk of battery fire in June 2019. That same month, Chinese EV startup Nio issued an even bigger recall of its own electric SUV over fire fears after discovering a flaw in the design of its early battery packs.
Tesla, which has sold more electric cars than anyone else in the world, has also dealt with a few fires. The company has even pushed out multiple over-the-air software updates over the years to reduce the risk of these incidents. Tesla has also developed a guide for first responders to help fight battery fires, which require more water to extinguish.
An all-electric Porsche Taycan in Florida caught fire on Sunday, the company has confirmed to The Verge. It’s the first known case of a Taycan catching fire, and Porsche says the cause is unknown at this time. No one was hurt in the fire, though significant damage was apparently done…
