BMW has slammed an ABC News report that aired a report on dozens of BMW vehicles allegedly bursting into flames spontaneously.
The ABC investigation discovered that over 40 BMW models have caught fire in the U.S. in the last five years despite being turned off. Shortly after the report aired, BMW said it was investigating “vehicle fire incidents brought to our attention” and has now hit out at the report, calling it “sensationalistic.”
In a statement, the German automaker said that it had investigated the vehicles in the report and in some instances, inspected them. BMW says that in the cases where a root cause was determined to have caused the fires, it was unable to find any pattern between incidents.
“With approximately 4.9 million BMW vehicles on U.S. roads, fire incidents involving BMWs are extremely rare. BMW takes every incident very seriously and has a team dedicated to working with BMW owners, insurance companies and authorities to investigate vehicle fire incidents brought to our attention,” the carmaker said.
ABC News said that it turned over its findings to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration but the NHTSA hasn’t found any evidence of a safety defect.