Tesla’s Battery Packs Are Stolen Before They Leave the Factory

Trailers with millions Tesla’s dollar value car and at home Batteries have reportedly been stolen while loading docks at the company’s Nevada facility at least 11 times since last December, according to sheriff’s records obtained by WIRED.

“It’s an epidemic right now,” said Storey County Sheriff’s Detective Sam Hatley, who is investigating the Tesla cases.

Three men are suspected of having carried out one of the attacks he was arrested in January and charged with possession of stolen property. But the amount of theft plaguing Elon Musk’s car company is still under investigation and has never been reported.

Hatley tells WIRED that the sheriff’s records show only one part of the problem. Investigators are tracking 17 reported thefts this year involving Tesla and other businesses in Storey County, though Hatley declined to say how many directly involved the automaker. One operation targeting Tesla involved a rechargeable battery Redwood Tools. The numbers may still be low, Hatley adds, because companies are sometimes reluctant to disclose that their products have been stolen.

Transportation researchers he says last year that shipping theft in the US doubled from 2022 to 2024 and is now costing companies about $18 million a day, which could mean higher prices for consumers. Electronic devices have been target frequencyaccording to anti-theft consultant Verisk CargoNet.

Of particular concern to law enforcement and the transportation industry is the rise in so-called strategic thefts, such as the one Tesla allegedly experienced. This does not apply to thieves who steal from an empty trailer at a rest stop. Artificial intelligence teams have found ways to find loopholes in security protocols the most valuable car manufacturer in the worldincluding the use of fake IDs and the loose relationships the company has with the truckers who carry its goods.

WIRED learned of the incident through an emergency records request from Storey County, where Tesla’s battery factory employs about 12,000 people, making it the largest employer in the area. About 2 percent of the emergencies in the region last year came from 5.4 million square meters the so-called gigafactorywhich Tesla works in partnership with Panasonic. (A large number of calls, however, appear to be but they call 911.)

A Tesla co-owner told investigators that some of the early thefts were caused by failing to follow basic safety rules, according to sheriff’s reports. The automaker has tightened its procedures, including starting to verify the identity of drivers at the factory gate, according to sheriff’s records. “It’s definitely helping,” Hatley says. Theft “does happen, but not much.”

Tesla, the managing partner named in the reports, and Redwood Materials did not respond to requests for comment.

Pilfering Powerwalls

The first recent case occurred in December and involved two trailers each loaded with Powerwall 3 valued at $475,000. residential battery systemsthat was taken from Tesla’s property by a dodgy logistics carrier, according to sheriff’s reports. Authorities also found empty trailers 500 miles away in Southern California.

Tesla’s security team later found some of the Powerwalls being sold online and notified authorities. Products can’t be opened when they’re detected as stolen, according to researchers, so there’s not much to gain from buying them. In another case, an auto parts dealer in Northern California told Tesla and authorities that someone had paid for what they believed to be stolen, which investigators later confirmed.

Tesla reported another theft in December and nine more in January. This included a January 19 incident involving another trailer containing 123 Powerwalls. He went to Tesla in Hayward, California but never got there. Sheriff’s reports say the semi-truck and company whose driver came to pick up the trailer does not have an interstate license. The trucking dealer contracted to transport the trailer to unauthorized persons, according to sheriff’s reports.