Walmart slams Tesla with a lawsuit claiming its solar panels caught fire at 7 stores (TSLA, WMT)

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• Walmart on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Tesla’s solar energy unit in New York state.
• The retail giant alleges solar panels installed by Tesla caught on fire at seven stores. 
• Shares of Tesla fell about 0.4% in after-hours trading on Tuesday. 
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Walmart on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Tesla, accusing the company’s solar-energy subsidiary of gross negligence after multiple stores experienced fires they say stemmed from solar panels on their roofs.

“As of November 2018, no fewer than seven Walmart stores had experienced fires due to Tesla’s solar system,” the company said in its lawsuit, filed in New York state court.

Walmart claims that the incidents were linked, and that they were all a result of “widespread negligence” on behalf of Tesla and its employees who installed the systems.

“Tesla has also demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to remediate the dangerous conditions documented in its inspection reports,” the complaint says.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Walmart said in the filing that it has leased or licensed roof space at more than 240 stores for solar-energy systems, to be supplied by Tesla.

Shares of Tesla fell about 0.4% in after hour trading following the lawsuit’s filing.

Before it was acquired by Tesla in 2016, SolarCity originally inked deals with Walmart as early as 2010 for solar projects. According to company press releases, the company had already installed more than 200 solar projects at stores by 2014.

Tuesday’s suit is far from the first Tesla has faced regarding SolarCity since the acquisition. In 2018, three former employees alleged he company had faked sales accounts to inflate their bonuses along with the value of the company as a whole. The suit also alleges discrimination, harassment, and inadequate pay. A Tesla representative told Business Insider when the suit was filed that Tesla had investigated the allegations and found them to be untrue. The suit has since moved to private arbitration.

In recent months, Tesla has began to ramp up its solar energy unit, after reporting the lowest number of quarterly installs to-date in the second quarter. The company said Monday it will offer solar panel rentals for as low as $50 per month in some US states, with plans to offer a similar product in Europe soon. 

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