A Tesla Semi truck crashed into trees and caught fire off the side of a highway in California early Monday, causing road closures on I-80 for almost 16 hours. As reported by KCRA 3 News, Cal Fire crews first headed to the crash site near the Nevada border after 3AM local time.
Firefighters doused the Tesla Semi with thousands of gallons of water to cool its lithium-ion EV battery pack down to a manageable target temperature of around 100 degrees Fahrenheit while waiting for its cells to burn out. Around 4PM the crew got the batteries to a safer temperature and began work to move what was left of the Semi to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada. The highway was fully reopened after 7PM.
California Highway Patrol told KCRA 3 that the driver of the Semi was taken to a hospital after walking away from the crash. Now, authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, including whether the driver had fallen asleep. The Semi was operated by Tesla, which often uses the class 8 commercial truck to haul freshly made EV batteries from the Gigafactory to its Fremont, California car manufacturing plant. In this case, it was not pulling a trailer, so it seems the Semi’s own batteries were burning.
It’s not the first time big Tesla batteries have caught fire in California. The company’s Megawatt energy storage batteries went aflame at a local utility in 2022, shutting down part of a highway.
