A Tesla Model S reportedly caught fire in a parking lot in Hong Kong on Sunday and the car manufacturer has already rolled out an over-the-air battery software update to try and prevent similar incidents in the future.
Reuters reports that the Model S 85 was parked in the city’s San Po Kong District for roughly 30 minutes before it caught fire. Three explosions were reportedly captured on CCTV footage and the car was not plugged in at the time of the fire.
Local authorities are said to be investigating the case but that hasn’t stopped Tesla itself getting the jump and already taking action, Tech Crunch reports.
On Tuesday, the Calfironian electric car manufacturer announced that it is introducing a software update to change battery charge and thermal management settings in the Model S and Model X. Tesla has yet to determine the cause of the fire in Hong Kong and doesn’t yet know if there are any issues with the battery pack.
“We currently have well over half a million vehicles on the road, which is more than double the number that we had at the beginning of last year, and Tesla’s team of battery experts uses that data to thoroughly investigate incidents that occur and understand the root cause,” the company said in a statement. “Although fire incidents involving Tesla vehicles are already extremely rare and our cars are 10 times less likely to experience a fire than a gas car, we believe the right number of incidents to aspire to is zero.”
“As we continue our investigation of the root cause, out of an abundance of caution, we are revising charge and thermal management settings on Model S and Model X vehicles via an over-the-air software update that will begin rolling out today, to help further protect the battery and improve battery longevity,” Tesla confirmed.
The update will not be made available to the Tesla Model 3.
The fire in Hong Kong comes just a few weeks after a Model S was filmed exploding while parked in a Shanghai parking lot.