Tesla Whistleblower Releases VIN Numbers Of Model 3s With Punctured Battery Modules

One month ago, we reported that Martin Tripp – the former Tesla engineer who on June 20 was sued by Tesla for allegedly trying to “sabotage” the company – and who subsequently turned out to be a whistleblower who was fired in retaliation for his disclosures, was alleging several egregious safety violations that, if true, would likely destroy what remains of Musk’s tattered credibility, which the SEC is currently subpoenaing.

As part of his now public whistleblowing effort to bring attention to glaring lapses in Tesla’s safety and quality control process, Tripp alleged that Tesla made misstatements to investors about placing batteries with puncture holes into vehicles which proceeded to the end of the assembly line – a process known internally at Tesla as “Containment AR622” -to help pad out its Model 3 production numbers in pursuit of Musk’s goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s a week. 

Tripp made some other striking accusations, among which that Tesla:

  • Overstated to investors the number of Model 3 vehicles being produced each week by as much as 44%. The whistelblower alleges that the famed factory board which reflects a daily Model 3 production count and often referred to by Tesla is inflated;
  • Lowered vehicle specifications impacting upon safety such as placing battery cells too close to one another and which were not properly affixed, risking future combustion; and
  • Systematically reused parts already deemed scrap/waste in vehicles without regard to safety.

He also accused Tesla of placing battery cells too close together and not properly securing them, raising the risk of future combustion, as well as “systematically” reusing parts that had been deemed to be scrap or waste.

A few days after Tripp’s allegations emerged,we reported that in a surprising public address on Twitter, Stuart Meissner, who was retained as Tripp’s counsel to defend against Tesla’s lawsuit against him and to countersue, tweeted in response to a Forbes article “Will Tesla Be ‘Tripp’ed’ Up By A Whistleblower“, that it was “time for the @SEC_Enforcement to act. Not an accident @elonmusk has been silent on the allegations. Let sunshine be the cleanser for $TSLA”

Well, with Musk doing most of Tripp’s work for him, and now that the SEC is investigating Tesla for an entirely different matter altogether, namely Musk’s seemingly fraudulent tweet that he had “secured funding” to take Tesla private, just after 5pm EDT, on his twitter account, Martin Tripp tweeted “are you ready”…

… and proceeded to release a list of VIN numbers that allegedly have a battery “module(s) that IS punctured/dented/damaged.”

Tripp then released information on what Tesla’s “Containment AR622” process looks like, described as “Puncturing of cell due to “training pin” being left in picker robot. Qty 1,173 battery modules affected- 723 Model 3’s currently affected.“

There was more. In the next series of tweets, Tripp accused Tesla of lying that all the “scrap/waste is being stored in climate controlled warehouses”, saying “this be true?! Let these pics speak for themselves:”

He then lays out details of what appears to be module scrap data by part:

Tripp wasn’t finished, and next revealed screengrabs of internal emails, showing orders from above to strop tracking of parts… …

… as well as an email in which he complains directly to Musk about the quality process at Gigafactory 1, as well as communication with a supervisor who demands to see Tripp’s complaints as he is “the one getting fired”:

Tripp also shows a photo from GF1 of cooling tubes that “should” be straight, yet appear to have bends in them:

In a detour, Tripp then said that “These fucking idiots at Tesla $TSLA $TSLAQ @elonmusk were saying I was upset I didn’t get a promotion. Here’s the truth: I was planning on retiring in TWO years! I wanted young kids out of college to take my job and just tear stators down all day!”

And while Tripp’s revelatory tweeting continued – much to Musk’s chagrin – even just the allegations so far presented are damning, and if confirmed by third parties and regulators that Tesla knowingly sold cars with defective battery modules and other parts, would result in not only giant fines but potentially prison time for those involved in the decision process.

Conveniently, this is all hitting just as the SEC has finally woken up and is looking into what really takes place at Tesla.

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