Are Tesla Cars Safe? Tesla Model S 85 Catches Fire In Hong Kong Parking Lot

A Tesla model S 85 burst into flames in Hong Kong, local newspaper Apple Daily reported Tuesday. This news comes after there have been increasing incidents of Tesla electric vehicles catching on fire across China.

The vehicle was ignited 30 minutes after being parked in Hong Kong's San Po Kong industrial district with the footage being caught by surveillance cameras. It took firemen 45 minutes to extinguish the blaze. No one was injured by the fire.

Tesla did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the incident.

Reuters pointed out that "there have been at least 14 incidents of Tesla vehicles catching fire since 2013, most of them after a crash."

In April, a Tesla exploded in Shanghai and a Tesla Model S caught fire in June 2018 on a Los Angeles street. The incident gained media attention because it was driven by the husband of a Hollywood actor.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has pointed out that electric vehicles are much less likely to catch on fire than combustion engine automobiles.

"Reality is that a Tesla, like most electric cars, is 500% less likely to catch on fire as combustion engine cars, which carry massive amounts of fuel. Why is this never mentioned?" he tweeted in April after the incident in Shanghai.

There has long been debate as to whether electric cars are more or less likely to catch fire, though most experts seem to think that electric cars are safer than gasoline-powered cars.

"The propensity and severity of fires and explosions from […] lithium-ion battery systems are anticipated to be somewhat comparable to or perhaps slightly less than those for gasoline or diesel vehicular fuels," according to a study by Battelle for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, there were roughly 174,000 highway vehicle fires in 2015. CNN reported that mostly all of the fires involved gas-powered cars.

China is the world's largest market for renewable energy vehicles and Tesla is currently building the first completely foreign-owned vehicle plant in Shanghai, with Musk saying that company hopes to manufacture 500,000 vehicles in 2019. Tesla has grown worried about how the U.S.-China trade war could affect business operations, as vehicles could be hit by tariffs.