Tesla Battery Swelling: What the Official Records Say

If You Saw a Battery Bulge: What Swelling Is and How It Can Happen

Battery swelling is the buildup of gas inside a lithium-ion cell that causes its casing to expand. A swollen cell is a sign that something inside it is no longer working as designed. Swelling describes what can be seen, not why it happened.

In general terms, the causes discussed for swelling in lithium-ion cells include overcharging, excessive heat, physical damage to the cell, and flaws introduced when the cell was made. None of these is specific to any one brand. Which of them, if any, played a part in a particular battery is a question the facts of that battery decide.

Swelling matters for safety because a damaged cell can rupture, vent flammable gas or ignite. The most serious version of that chain is thermal runaway: a self-reinforcing cycle of heat inside a cell, where heat drives reactions that make more heat, which can lead to fire or explosion. Our page on lithium battery thermal runaway explains that process in more depth.

Many rechargeable products also carry a battery management system, the electronics that monitor and control charging, temperature and the balance between cells. When people ask what went wrong with a battery, that system is often part of the question, alongside the cells themselves.

If you saw a battery swell, the questions people often weigh next are how it was charged, where it was kept, whether it was ever damaged or repaired, and when it was made. Those details are what later point toward one cause or another. The site's general page, Swollen Lithium Battery, covers swelling across product types; this page stays with what the official records listed for Tesla say.

Is Your Unit Covered? What the Official Records Say About Tesla Products

The official record behind this page is a recall notice published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). A recall is an action, announced through the agency, in which a firm offers a remedy such as a repair, a replacement or a refund for a product the notice identifies.

The notice is titled "Tesla Recalls Powerwall 2 AC Battery Power Systems Due to Fire and Burn Hazards; Risk of Serious Injury or Death". According to that CPSC page, the recall date is November 13, 2025, and the recall number is 26-092. The notice names the product as "Certain Tesla Powerwall 2 AC Battery Power System" and describes the units as "fully-integrated AC battery systems used for energy storage for self-consumption, time-based control, and backup power." It says the model number "Powerwall 2" is printed on the nameplate label on the side of the unit.

The CPSC page states the hazard this way: "The lithium-ion battery cells in certain Powerwall 2 systems can cause the unit to stop functioning during normal use, which can result in overheating and, in some cases, smoke or flame and can cause death or serious injury due to fire and burn hazards."

The notice lists about 10,500 units and a remedy of "Replace." It states that owners can check the Tesla App for a notification about whether their unit is included, and that Tesla "has remotely discharged (or removed energy from the battery of) affected Powerwall 2 systems that are online, to prevent overheating, until the replacement is installed." It lists the manufacturer as Tesla, Inc., of Reno, Nevada.

On incidents, the CPSC page states: "The firm has received 22 reports of overheating, including six reports of smoking and five reports of fire, resulting in minor property damage. No injuries have been reported." The notice says the units were sold through Tesla.com/powerwall and certified Tesla installers from November 2020 through December 2022.

Put plainly, the official records listed for this page do not describe battery swelling in Tesla products, and they include no NHTSA record. The hazard this notice names is overheating, smoke or flame, and fire and burn risk, for the certain Powerwall 2 units it covers.

For someone whose battery failed, this matters because whether a unit falls within a notice, and what hazard the notice names, can shape the questions asked later. It also helps to keep several things separate. A recall is not a finding of a defect, or that the product injured anyone, or that the firm is liable. An incident report does not prove what caused an incident. A lawsuit is not a finding of liability, and an allegation is not a fact. This notice covers the units it names, not any other Tesla product.

If you own a Powerwall 2, the details people often compare against the notice are the nameplate model number, the purchase or installation dates, and any Tesla App notification. Our lithium battery recall lookup guide explains how a product is checked against a CPSC notice field by field.

Records and Information That Often Matter If Someone Was Hurt

If you were hurt, or someone in your family was, the records that usually matter show what the product was, what happened to it and what the injury was. A product liability case is built from that material, and what is kept early can affect what can be shown later.

If you were treated after a battery fire, your medical records are what tie the event to its effect on your health and life: the emergency visit, the burn or smoke-inhalation diagnosis, the treatment that followed and the bills.

Photographs and video often matter a great deal. Families often have images of the product, any bulging or scorching, the room or garage where it was, and the damage afterward. Images taken close to the event show conditions that can change later.

The product itself is often the most important item, along with its packaging, charger and accessories, which can bear on whether a defect existed and what kind. A battery that has been repaired, discarded or altered can be harder to examine, which is why its condition and whereabouts often come up early.

Purchase records, such as a receipt, an order history or an installer's paperwork, show where the product came from and help establish the chain of distribution: the businesses that made, imported, sold or installed it.

Official reports, including incident reports, police reports and fire investigation reports, record what responders saw, though a report does not by itself prove what caused an event. Families also often keep the names and contact details of witnesses.

None of these items decides a claim on its own. Knowing which of them exist, and which are missing, is often a practical starting point for a conversation with an attorney.

Who May Be Responsible When a Battery Swells

Product liability is the body of law that allows an injured person to seek compensation from a party in the chain of distribution of a defective product. That chain can include a manufacturer, an importer, a distributor, a retailer and, in some situations, a repairer or installer who worked on the product. Each is identified by its role, and which roles apply depends on the product's history.

Federal safety law uses the word "defect" in a way that tracks the three kinds of defect courts usually discuss. The CPSC's regulation at 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4 says "a defect is a fault, flaw, or irregularity that causes weakness, failure, or inadequacy in form or function." It explains that a defect "may be the result of a manufacturing or production error," that "the design of and the materials used in a consumer product may also result in a defect," and that "a defect can also occur in a product's contents, construction, finish, packaging, warnings, and/or instructions."

In plain terms, a design defect means the product's design itself is unsafe, even if every unit is built exactly to it. A manufacturing defect means a particular unit departed from its intended design. A failure to warn means the instructions or warnings did not adequately address a risk. That regulation defines a defect for a firm's reporting to the CPSC; state law, not the regulation, decides whether an injured person has a claim.

For a family, the federal reporting duty explains how a problem can reach the agency even before anyone is hurt. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064, a manufacturer, distributor or retailer that obtains information which reasonably supports the conclusion that a product contains a defect which could create a substantial product hazard, or creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death (among other grounds the section lists), generally must "immediately inform the Commission," unless it knows the Commission has already been adequately informed. That duty runs to the agency. It does not by itself establish what happened in any one home.

A claim against a party generally turns on what the law asks: depending on the theory and the state, a duty, a breach of it, causation and damages, or a defect and causation. Causation, the link between the product and the harm, is often where the hardest questions sit. Whether any of these elements is met depends on the facts. Our lithium battery injury lawyer page walks through how these claims work more generally.

If you are trying to work out which businesses touched a battery before it failed, and which theory might fit what you saw, you may want to consider a conversation with our attorney about the product's history and the records described above.

How State Law Shapes a Battery Swelling Claim

State law decides most of the questions in a battery injury case, and the rules differ from state to state. No one state's rule, California's included, is the rule everywhere.

A statute of limitations is the period within which a legal claim must be filed; a claim filed after it may be barred, however strong it might otherwise have been. The length of that period, when it starts to run and the exceptions to it differ by state and by the type of claim. Some states also have other time limits for product claims. Our pages on Texas lithium battery injury law and on California's rules set out those states' own deadlines from their statute text.

If you share some responsibility for what happened, the state's fault rule decides how that affects a claim. Comparative fault rules reduce a person's recovery to reflect their own share of responsibility for an accident, and some versions bar recovery past a certain share. Contributory fault rules, where a state follows them, can bar recovery if the injured person was at fault at all.

The damages a state's law may allow, meaning the categories of loss a claim can address, such as medical expenses, lost earnings, and pain and suffering, are also set by state law, along with any limits on them. Wrongful-death rules, which decide who may bring a claim after a death and for what losses, vary as well. The law of the state where the injury happened often governs, though which state's law applies can itself be a question.

For a family dealing with a fire, these differences shape the time available and the losses that may be considered. Questions people often bring to an attorney include where and when the injury happened, which state's law applies, and how that state treats timing and fault.