A Quebec court has refused to overturn a $161,700 judgment against Tesla Canada over a 2020 Model X that caught fire in Montreal. Details of the Superior Court decision became public on October 9. We have not seen a statement from Tesla.
What happened
The fire began around 1 a.m. on March 5, 2023, in Montreal’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville area. The driver and a passenger smelled smoke after turning on the heat, stopped and got out. The car was engulfed in about five minutes and declared a total loss. The driver said, “We were lucky.” The amount is $161,700, most likely Canadian dollars, since some listings show it as C$161,700.
Why the insurer sued
The insurer, Intact, paid for the loss and then sought repayment from Tesla Canada. It argued the car was still under Tesla’s basic warranty, which lasts four years or 80,000 kilometers. Intact won a default judgment in June, and Tesla then tried to have it overturned. A default judgment is one entered without a full contest of the case, usually because the defendant did not respond in time.
What the court decided
Justice Ian Demers rejected Tesla’s request. He found Tesla had not given supporting evidence or a credible enough defense. A police investigation in 2023 found no sign of a crime. An expert report said the fire started near the passenger-side dashboard, with a premature electrical failure the likely cause. A Tesla employee had suggested that fires like this are usually linked to misuse or deliberate damage.
What this is not
This was not a full trial on what caused the fire. The court ruled on whether to cancel a default judgment. The time to appeal had not run out when the ruling became public, so this may not be the last word.
Our take: the headline fact is narrow. The court did not find that Tesla’s cars catch fire, and it did not hold a full hearing on the cause. It decided Tesla had not made a strong enough case to undo a default judgment. We have not read the full decision, and our details come from a single account of it, so items such as the judge’s name and the currency of the amount should be confirmed against the court record. For more on how Tesla deals with regulators, see our report on Tesla and the Dutch regulator.
