Tesla accused of environmental and safety ‘failures’ as whistleblower dispute deepens

A FORMER Tesla employee has revealed pictures of internal emails, photographs and vehicle serial numbers that he claims show environmental and safety failures at Elon Musk’s electric car firm.

Martin Tripp, a whistleblower who is also suing the company for defamation, released a series of posts to his Twitter account. They show individual car serial numbers that he claims have “punctured … damaged” battery modules. Tesla has refuted Mr Tripp’s claims.

The California-based car manufacturer, founded by Mr Musk, is also suing Mr Tripp for allegedly hacking into its computer systems, which he denies.

The former technician at Tesla revealed the serial numbers of dozens of electric cars he claims are fitted with faulty batteries. The tweets also showed what Mr Tripp said were truck loads of electronic waste left abandoned, rather than properly disposed of. A Tesla spokesman said: “As we’ve said before, these claims are false and Mr Tripp does not even have personal knowledge about the safety claims that he is making.

“No punctured cells have ever been used in any Model 3 vehicles in any way, and all VINS [vehicle identification numbers] that have been identified have safe batteries. Notably, there have been zero battery safety issues in any Model 3.”

Mr Tripp was handed a 12-hour suspension by Twitter following the tweets. The former technician for the electric car company has been locked in a bitter war of words with Tesla since he was sued by the firm in June. Emails between the former employee and Mr Musk were made public by the Washington Post. Mr Musk accused him of “betraying your word of honour” and attempting to “frame” colleagues.

Tesla has been caught up in a whirlwind of speculation after Mr Musk reported that he was planning to take it private at a value of $420 per share.