Video: Tesla smoked

A Tesla Model 3 Performance owner was smoked in a “coal roll” attack by a diesel ute, a not uncommon action by some US diesel drivers in an apparent retaliation against EVs.

“Coal rolling” is done by diesel owners where they emit excessive amounts of fuel into their vehicle’s engine, producing large amounts of black smoke, Teslarati reports.

“The act is usually identified as a form of ‘anti-environmentalism’ because it requires illegal modifications to a vehicle’s emissions equipment to be performed. Teslarati says.

It reports Jeff Mahin was driving to work near downtown Miami, when a modified Ford ute overtook his Model 3 Performance from the left-hand side, blowing smoke across the front of the Tesla.

Mahin tried to avoid the other vehicle which cut off several others to try to stay in front of the Tesla, coal rolling him again.

In the Tesla Dashcam clip Mahin put on YouTube, he was cut off and coal rolled four times.

“I went into the right lane to avoid him and he risked his life and other lives to not use his blinker and shoot across lanes to continue to try to blind me with smoke,” Mahin says.

Coal rolling is considered illegal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a violation of the United States’ Clean Air Act of 1963.

The EPA also says it’s illegal to purchase or install “a part for a motor vehicle that bypasses, defeats, or renders inoperative any emission control device [and] prohibits anyone from tampering with an emission control device on a motor vehicle by removing it or making it inoperable prior to or after the sale or delivery to the buyer”.

With coal rolling growing in popularity, seven US states have deemed it either illegal or condemn it, mainly because it can limit visibility for those targeted and create risks.

Tesla Dashcam and Sentry Mode have captured such incidents, several featured in YouTube videos.

‘Bioweapon defence mode’ would at least prevent the soot being inhaled by Tesla occupants by filtering out pollution.