The Walmart network has sued Tesla due to fires of solar panels installed on the roofs of the company's supermarkets

The Walmart supermarket chain on August 20 filed a lawsuit against the Tesla Supreme Court of New York, accusing the latter of negligence, which led to several cases of fire panels installed on Walmart stores.

According to Reuters, in 2010, Walmart became a client of Solarcity, which Tesla bought in 2016. Within the framework of the contract, the solar panels were installed on the roofs of 244 Walmart stores in order to reduce the company's costs for electricity and increase the share of electricity received by Walmart from renewable sources (by 2020 this indicator should be 35%). The agreement stipulated that Solarcity, and then Tesla, was supposed to install both the panels and engage in their maintenance.

The Walmart claim says that by November 2018, at least seven stores of the company located in different states, fires occurred, the cause of which became Tesla systems. At the same time, one fire occurred a few months after the solar energy transformation system was disabled (now Tesla systems are disabled in all Walmart supermarkets). According to the plaintiff, fires destroyed a lot of goods and caused damage to millions of dollars.

According to Walmart, Tesla negligence led to fires. In particular, the company was in a hurry with the installation of panels in pursuit of profit: the contractors and subcontractors who were engaged in the installation of systems did not have sufficient qualifications, and the supervision of them was weak. As a result, a threat of security of Walmart employees and customers was created.

In July, Walmart gave Tesla a month to analyze the causes of fires, the payment of compensation to the retailer for the damage caused by fires and changing approaches to work. However, by August 15, Tesla did not take any noticeable steps to correct her mistakes. In this regard, Walmart appealed to the court - the retailer demands that Tesla dismantle the solar panels in all chain stores where they were installed earlier.

According to The Verge , the Walmart claim was filed a few days after Tesla offered private customers the opportunity to install solar panels on the roof of the house for $ 50 a month.