A teenager has been arrested after crashing his Tesla into a gas station in West Austin on Thursday morning.
According to the Austin Police Department, police and fire department units responded to a major crash at the Shell gas station in at 2701 Exposition Boulevard at approximately 1:22 a.m.
Police said the male driver of the Tesla Model X crashed into a traffic light pole at the intersection of Exposition Boulevard and Westover Road before crashing into a gas pump.
The vehicle, which costs roughly $80,000, burst into flames after the crash, police said.
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According to police, the driver, the only occupant of the vehicle, was able to escape from the car and was outside the vehicle when police and fire crews arrived.
Police said the driver was arrested for driving while intoxicated.
No injuries were reported as a result of the crash, police said.
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According to police, the fire damaged the awning of the gas station, but the building itself did not sustain any major damage.
Thayer Smith, division chief of the Austin Fire Department, said firefighters must follow different protocol when putting out fires in electric cars as opposed to normal gas cars.
Normal car fires can be put out with 500 to 1,000 gallons of water, but electric cars can require 30,000 to 40,000 gallons of water to extinguish the car's battery pack, Smith said.
