Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk assured a female customer on Friday that he would investigate the EV giant’s lawsuit against EVject, a company that makes a ‘breakaway’ charging connector for Tesla EV drivers.
What Happened: EVject’s charging connector allows drivers to disconnect from EV chargers and drive away in emergency situations without stepping out of the vehicle.
Last month, Tesla filed a lawsuit against EVject alleging that their breakaway connectors are “dangerous” and pose a high safety risk.
The connector has no over-temperature protection and may overheat when charging, Tesla said in the lawsuit, posing risks of burn injuries to users. The high temperature also poses risks of fire to other combustible materials in the charger cable, the EV, or the supercharging infrastructure, Tesla alleged.
The EV maker requested the court to pass an order prohibiting the import of the connectors and make EVject pay at least $75,000 in damages.
EVject Responds: “We have said this since the beginning of the communication with Tesla. We are eager to collaborate and codevelop an approved and potentially integrated solution,” EVject founder Kred Peeler wrote on X on Friday.
Tesla based its allegations in the lawsuit on a study it paid for from a third-party engineering team.
Peeler, however, alleges that the tests were performed without cooling systems in place. He also claimed that the connectors are built “tough” and that the company has been working to integrate a thermal sensor “but the standard keeps changing.”
Musk Assures Further Investigation: Tesla enthusiast Alexandra Merz took to X on Friday to request that Tesla reconsider its lawsuit. Merz said in her post that the connector has great utility and alleviates the safety concerns of stepping out of the EV at charging stations to unplug the cable.
“If this overheating issue that Tesla says exists, I hope they can together sort it out,” Merz wrote.
“Will investigate,” Musk wrote to Merz. Merz is one of the select Tesla enthusiasts on X that Musk regularly responds to.
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