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[UPDATE] Tesla Model S Struck By Lightning While Charging

A Model S disabled by lightning while charging must wait at least one day for Tesla technicians to figure out what went wrong and restore it to service.

Published

10 years ago

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UPDATED June 6

It’s been a week since Sarah Day’s Model S got struck by lightning while she was at a SuperCharger facility. So far, she reports Tesla really has no idea what happened to her car, but the technicians at the local Tesla Service Center have been kept busy trying to repair it.

She understands the battery has been removed and sent off to the factory in California, where Tesla engineers “are almost giddy to get their hands on it,” she says. Apparently this is a first of its kind event and the company is putting every effort into trying to understand what happened. Sarah has been told that there may be an official announcement from Tesla when they get it all figured out.

In the meantime, she says “All eyes are on Columbus.” The incident occurred in Ohio, not Georgia as I originally thought. She has asked to be provided with a full technical analysis of what happened to her car and what it will take to fix it when that information becomes available.

For now, there seems to be no correlation between the lightning strike and the fact that her car was charging at the time. It seems Sarah was just unlucky that the lightning came so close. It may be cool to be the center of attention at Tesla headquarters for a little while, but I think by now she would prefer to have her car back so she can get on with her life.

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A Model S struck by lightning while charging will have to wait at least one day for Tesla technicians to bring it back to life and figure out what happened. Sarah Day was charging her Tesla Model S at a Supercharger location near Columbus, Georgia [Edit: The location of the event occurred at Columbus, OH and not Columbus, GA as originally published] on Sunday morning when a lightning bolt hit very close by. Her first indication that something was wrong came when her BlackVue dash cam lost power. Here’s how she describes what happened next:

“I heard the crash, and just a second or two after about 9 errors popped up on the dashboard. Some of them were low charge warnings, saying it would disable some functions. Others were on how the car needs to be serviced. I was also getting that the car can’t be charged, and that the 12 volt battery is low.

“After the storm died down I got out of the car. The charging port wasn’t lit up, and when I tried to remove the cable it wouldn’t come out. I still had most of the functions in the car, including the touchscreen. The other car that was charging just a couple stalls down from me was completely fine and drove away, though I didn’t get to talk to that owner afterwards.”

Sarah called Tesla but had trouble getting through due to high call volume. The company agreed to send a tow truck, but before it got there, the 12 volt battery failed and the touchscreen shut down. When the tow driver arrived, he attempted to charge up the battery but it took two attempts before the touchscreen came back to life. Even then, the charging cable still would not disconnect from the car. Sarah couldn’t get the sunroof to close, either.

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Since the car couldn’t be towed with the charging cable connected, Sarah had to leave her car at the Supercharger station with the sunroof partially open. There was nothing more she could do until the local Tesla service station opened for business on Monday morning.

Although Sarah wasn’t happy about her car being disabled, she can’t say enough good things about Tesla service and support people who took her phone calls.

“Tesla customer service was amazing. They were very responsive, and offered to rent me a car from enterprise so I could come home. I said I would rather stay with the car for a couple days to see how it all played out. I am from Atlanta and I was visiting a friend in Columbus, and I didn’t want to be that far away from the car in case of any issues.

“They offered to put me up in a hotel for a night, and also to get me a taxi or Uber ride. I decided I’d just stay with my friend, but they sent the Uber driver over for me. Also, the service center in Marietta, GA has been in contact with me to see how things are going. I know them pretty well, as well as one of the technicians. They have been incredibly helpful and supportive, though they can’t really do anything from there.”

The local Tesla service center will send a technician Monday morning to get the charging cable disconnected and bring the car in to be checked over. Sarah was told that each Supercharger has multiple relays and sensors to protect the cars from surges. At this point, she has no explanation for why her car was disabled, but expects a full report on Monday. She has complete confidence in Tesla service personal to identify the problem and get her car functioning properly again.

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“They usually are pretty thorough with their descriptions of what went wrong. I’m hoping that it’s something simple. The technician in Marietta says the car may have sensed the large external voltage spike and disconnected everything as a safety precaution, but I don’t know if that would cause the charging port to malfunction.”

Thanks to Sarah Day for sharing with us details of her experience while she was in the middle of being stranded far from home. We will update this report when more information becomes available.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla ‘Model Q’ gets bold prediction from Deutsche Bank that investors will love

Tesla’s Model Q could be on the way soon, and a new note from Deutsche Bank thinks it will contribute to Q4 deliveries.

Published

14 hours ago

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July 20, 2025

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Credit: @JoeTegtmeyer/X

The Tesla “Model Q” has been in the rumor mill for the company for several years, but a recent note from Wall Street firm Deutsche Bank seems to indicate that it could be on its way in the near future.

This comes as Tesla has been indicating for several quarters that its development of affordable models was “on track” for the first half of 2025. The company did not say it would unveil the vehicles in the first half, but many are anticipating that more cost-friendly models could be revealed to the public soon.

Potential affordable Tesla “Model 2/Model Q” test car spotted anew in Giga Texas

The Deutsche Bank note refers to one of the rumored affordable models as the “Model Q,” but we’ve also seen it referred to as the “Model 2,” amongst other names. Tesla has not officially coined any of its upcoming vehicles as such, but these are more of a universally accepted phrase to identify them, at least for now.

The rumors stem from sentiments regarding Tesla’s 2025 delivery projections, which are tempered as the company seeks to maintain a steady pace compared to 2023 and 2024, when it reported 1.8 million deliveries.

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Deutsche Bank’s analysts believe the deliveries could be around 1.58 million, but they state this is a cautious stance that could be impacted by several things, including the potential launch of the Model Q, which they believe will make its way to market in Q4:

“Looking at the rest of the year, we maintain a cautious stance on volume calling for 1.58m vehicle deliveries (-12% YoY) vs. consensus +1.62m, with the timing of Model Q rollout as the key swing factor (we now assume only 25k in Q4). In China, Tesla will introduce the Model Y L this fall (6 inch longer wheel base allowing for larger 3-row seating with six seats).”

Interestingly, the same firm also predicted that the Model Q would launch in the first half of the year based on a note that was released in early December 2024.

Those estimations came from a reported meeting that Deutsche Bank had with Tesla late last year, where it said it aimed to launch the Model Q for less than $30,000 and aimed for it to compete with cars like the Volkswagen ID.3 and BYD Dolphin.

Tesla’s Q2 Earnings Call is slated for this Wednesday and could reveal some additional details about the affordable models.

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Elon Musk

Tesla preps to expand Robotaxi geofence once again, answering Waymo

Just days after Waymo responded to them, Tesla is preparing for a potentially massive expansion of the Robotaxi geofence.

Published

15 hours ago

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July 20, 2025

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Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla is preparing to expand its Robotaxi geofence yet again, just days after Waymo responded to its initial broadening of the area.

Tesla launched its first expansion last week, less than a month after introducing Robotaxi rides in Austin.

The company opted for a very interesting shape for its geofence expansion, which was more of an indication that it could launch more rides in virtually any area of the city due to the new geofence it chose.

Waymo then responded to Tesla shortly after with an expansion of its own. After Tesla’s first expansion of its geofence, it had 42 square miles of Robotaxi-accessible travel region. This was larger than Waymo’s 37 square miles.

However, the Waymo expansion last week brought the company to a substantial 90 square miles of Austin:

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Waymo responds to Tesla’s Robotaxi expansion in Austin with bold statement

Tesla appears to be ready to respond. Drone operator and Gigafactory Texas observer Joe Tegtmeyer spotted Tesla Robotaxi validation vehicles well west of downtown Austin in the area of Marble Falls, Texas.

This would significantly increase Tesla’s square mileage if it could manage to bring its geofence to that size:

The two companies are not directly responding to one another with these expansions, but it appears that there is a significant amount of competition underway, which ultimately benefits the consumers.

Waymo has been operating in Texas since March from a fully public perspective, while Tesla is still slowly expanding its test size for the Robotaxi fleet on a nearly daily basis. Tesla launched Robotaxi rides to a handful of Early Access Program members on June 22.

Tesla is also expanding to other regions of the United States, particularly in Arizona and California. However, the Texas expansion is a priority currently, as it is the only region where Tesla has received approval to operate passenger rides in a driverless setting in the country.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk confirms awesome new features at Tesla Diner Supercharger

More details continue to be revealed about the Tesla Supercharger Diner as its opening seems to be imminent.

Published

1 day ago

on

July 19, 2025

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Credit: Brad Goldberg (via Sawyer Merritt on X)

Elon Musk has confirmed a few new features that will be present at the Tesla Diner Supercharger in Los Angeles.

Musk confirmed these two new details as he revealed he recently ate at the Supercharger Diner. We also recently confirmed a few menu items as a soft launch has already occurred, and a public launch date appears to be within reach.

The new features were revealed by Tesla Joy on X. We shared the details, and Musk confirmed that these are, in fact, features of the Diner that Tesla owners will be able to enjoy.

Tesla reveals key detail of Supercharger Diner, but it’s bigger than you think

The Diner is not exclusive to Tesla owners, but these two features do require a Tesla for compatibility purposes.

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Order Food from Your Car

As you pull into the Supercharger Diner, you can order any food item you want, including burgers, wings, fries, shakes, cookies, and more, directly from your vehicle.

A prompt will likely appear that will open a menu to the Supercharger Diner, allowing you to order food. An employee will bring the food out, that is, if Tesla decides to continue with a true and traditional 50s diner theme.

We get it, it’s not a groundbreaking feature. It’s still cool, convenient, and another advantage to visit the diner as a Tesla owner.

Movie Screen Audio Will Sync to Your Tesla

There are two massive movie screens that will play various entertainment options during your visit to the Supercharger Diner. There have been movie clips and even SpaceX launch highlights playing during recent drone flyovers at the location on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Instead of having to open your windows to hear the content on the screen, it will instead sync the audio and play directly in your vehicle through your car stereo speakers.

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The Supercharger Diner has also appeared on the Tesla app for the first time, and is currently showing 80 stalls at the location:

Although the stalls are not yet active, the culmination of all the details we’ve learned over the past week about the Diner only points to one thing: an imminent grand opening.

Tesla has not yet confirmed a date for the Supercharger Diner’s opening, and Los Angeles building and construction permits also do not state a specific target date for opening.

It seems as if Tesla will reveal the date itself, potentially in the coming week, as it will report earnings on Wednesday, July 23.

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