Electric Car Bricks Up in Middle of Busy Road, Becomes 9-Hour Headache

An electric vehicle abruptly stopped in the middle of a busy road near Salisbury, England, and remained immovable for most of the day, causing a nine-hour traffic bottleneck.

The nightmarish gridlock began when a Tesla Model 3 Performance car ran out of power and broke down as it was making a turn off a high-traffic thoroughfare Tuesday afternoon, according to The Telegraph of London.

A team of workers was unable to move the stranded EV because “the handbrakes of electric cars, and some other modern cars, are controlled electronically, unlike those of traditional petrol and diesel cars which are mechanical,” the report said.

“This means that the handbrake often locks when the power fails and the car cannot be pushed or towed,” it said.

Matt Grigg, the landlord of a local pub, said the stranded Tesla obstructed traffic for most of the day before it was taken away to be recharged.

“A number of local workmen along with the policeman attempted to push the car to safety, however, despite their best efforts they could not move it,” Grigg told The Telegraph. “The obstruction caused delays throughout the rest of the day.”

He said officers had to stop at several different charging stations before finding one they could use to recharge the vehicle.

According to Grigg, the electric car stopped working mid-turn even though its battery gauge showed it still had several miles of charge left.

He said the road was not cleared of all recovery vehicles until 11:15 p.m., or roughly nine hours after the Tesla abruptly halted.