EVwire brief: A Tesla Semi caught fire on Interstate 880 in Hayward, California, on Tuesday evening, prompting the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to close the freeway in both directions for several hours. The driver was not hurt.
The fire was reported around 5:35 p.m. in the southbound lanes near Route 92. There was no crash, and no other vehicles were involved. By 5:45 p.m., CHP had closed both directions between Winton Avenue and Route 92, with Officer Rolando Guzman citing "potential risk of hazardous chemical smoke."
Here's a look at the scene during the fire, as shared by Electric Felix on X:
Northbound lanes reopened around 8:40 p.m. CHP had warned that the battery fire could burn for 15 to 18 hours and that southbound lanes would stay closed until it was out and the truck could be safely removed. Southbound traffic was diverted at Winton Avenue, and all lanes were back open by Wednesday morning.
EVwire is monitoring the story closely to bring more details in an update, which will be noted here.
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The driver told CHP the truck "simply caught fire" and that they didn't know why. The cause remains under investigation.
The truck that burned is not one of Tesla's new production Semis. It is one of the early Frito-Lay Semis that PepsiCo has been running in its fleet since Tesla's first deliveries nearly four years ago, which means it predates the production truck now coming off Tesla's Semi Factory line.
One of PepsiCo’s Frito Lay Tesla Semi pre-production units.
Here’s another look at the fire:
Image: reveleth via Electric Felix
Image: reveleth via Electric Felix
Here's a look at the scene after the fire, as shared by CHP:
Image: CHP-Hayward on Facebook
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Context:
The Semi has been on the road in customer hands since Tesla's first deliveries to PepsiCo in December 2022, and those early trucks formed a pilot fleet of just under 200 vehicles that Tesla says has logged 17.5 million miles. Volume production is much more recent. Tesla began ramping high-volume output at its dedicated Semi Factory in Nevada in April, and showed off the production truck at its rollout event in September.
The production Semi was extensively redesigned over the past four years, using lessons from that pilot fleet. Its battery switched from 2170 cells to Tesla's in-house 4680 cells, and its thermal management moved to the new Megamanifold heat pump system, which handles the cabin and all powertrain heating and cooling loops. Tesla also reworked the drivetrain with a steel-caged rotor and a single-oil drive axle.
Image: Arnold & Itkin Law Firm
For scale, US fire departments responded to an average of more than 15,000 large-truck fires each year from 2018 to 2022, according to National Fire Protection Association data (NFPA) cited by Penske Truck Leasing. NFPA's supporting tables put the exact yearly average at 15,462 fires, along with 46 deaths and 102 injuries, as summarized by trucking law firm Arnold & Itkin. Those figures cover large trucks of every powertrain, with the vast majority running on diesel.
Source: ABC7 San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle and CBS San Francisco
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