Have 83 deaths been caused or attributed to fires caused by spontaneous Tesla explosions, as implied in a meme? No, that's not true: The figures in the meme come from an online database that compiles news reports and government data but does not verify or confirm these reports. According to that database, 83 deaths involved a Tesla car fire, but the fire involved a collision in every recorded death as of this writing. Though spontaneous car fires were reported in that database, none resulted in a death.
The claim appeared in a meme (archived here) shared to Threads on December 4, 2024, that read:
Twenty seven people died in Ford Pinto explosions and the car became a joke.
So, why have a whopping 232 Teslas blown up, resulting in 83 fatalities, and YOU don't even hear one thing about it?
Why?!
This is how the post looked on Threads at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken Thu Dec 5 09:23:44 2024 UTC)
The meme image misrepresents unofficial data to suggest that Tesla car fires occurred spontaneously and resulted in deaths.
The figures cited in the meme were taken from the Tesla Fire database (archived here), self-described as a website that "tracks all Tesla fires." The website, which does not show an affiliation with Tesla Inc., reads:
Tesla Fire tracks all Tesla fires - including cars and other products, e.g. Tesla MegaPacks - that are reported by news articles or verified primary sources. We also tally the number of fatalities involved with Tesla fires and provide links to additional photos or footage wherever possible.
However, this data shows that while dozens of spontaneous fires have been recorded in Teslas since records began in 2013, not one of those cases was deemed directly responsible for a death. In nearly every case, fatalities associated with Tesla fires involved the vehicle colliding with another object.
The website's most recent data as of December 5, 2024, notes that there were "232 confirmed cases" of fires and 83 "fatalities involving a Tesla car fire." The website also notes that the "latest update" occurred on February 17, 2023.
However, each fire-related fatality listed on the database involved a car fire that was connected to a collision or crash. Descriptors of the accidents include phrases such as, "Tesla crashes into tree, ignites," "Tesla hits pole, ignites" and "Tesla hits fire hydrant and burns." Lead Stories collected each fatality associated with a Tesla fire recorded on the website and included these in a table at the bottom of this article for reference. Lead Stories did not verify or confirm the accuracy of each report.
There were also several fires on the database with descriptors that indicate a fire started spontaneously, such as case number 228, "Parked Tesla erupts," case number 181, "Tesla catches fire," and case number 190, "Tesla catches fire while driving." None of these, however, listed a fatality.
The fire database is affiliated with Tesla Deaths (archived here), a website that compiles news reports and government data to track deaths involving Tesla vehicles. The website notes that the sheet tallies "each claimed and confirmed Tesla autopilot death." In other words, these are reports of deaths involving Teslas, not necessarily confirmed fatalities.
As of October 10, 2024, the Tesla Deaths database reported Tesla was involved in 614 fatalities. A word search found 20 "ignite" instances, nearly all affiliated with a collision. The two data sources -- Tesla Deaths and Tesla Fire -- possibly contradict each other in two incidences that could be deciphered as random ignitions. From Tesla Deaths:
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October 13, 2024, four deaths affiliated with a case described as "Tesla ignites for undetermined reason."
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March 12, 2022, one death affiliated with a case described as "Tesla ignites on parkway."
Data published by the National Fire Protection Agency on November 1, 2024, found (archived here) that U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated annual average of 215,096 vehicle fires in the United States from 2018-2022, causing an estimated 643 civilian deaths annually. These figures do not specify the vehicle make or model involved in the car fire.
In 2018, Tesla began voluntarily releasing quarterly safety data. The following year, Tesla began voluntarily releasing annually updated data about vehicle fires, according to the company website (archived here). Tesla collects annual vehicle fire data for a year before publishing to capture all known events and writes:
Our global data indicates that, between 2012 and 2022, approximately one Tesla vehicle fire event occurred for every 130 million vehicle miles traveled.
Lead Stories has debunked other claims involving Tesla, which can be read here.
