Stop using your cars immediately and do not drive until we have your car towed and repaired. That’s the message Japanese Subaru sent to more than a thousand Solterra electric car owners. There is a risk that wheels will fall off cars while driving. At the same time, it has to return to the service for the second time, the sister electric model Toyota bZ4X had the same problem last year.
Toyota and Subaru did not exactly enter the electric car market happily. Their first co-developed electric models Solterra and bZ4X have been plagued by problems since launch. Production started in June, but hundreds of Solterra electric cars have had to be serviced for the second time since then.
The American representative office of Subaru announced the recall of 1,182 units of its Solterra SUV, the portal informs Car and Driver. At the same time, it sent a message to owners not to drive their cars until repairs are made.
The problem is still the same. The screws in the wheel hubs can loosen even after a relatively small number of kilometers during sharp maneuvers or hard braking, and entire wheels can fall off.
The same cars have already been repaired once because of this, last summer. The automaker claimed that this solved the problem, but at the end of last week it announced that the repair of some parts did not go well.
How much range will electric cars lose in the cold? The Norwegians measured it and were not surprised
The Subaru Solterra and Toyota bZ4X models were jointly developed by both automakers. This is a fairly important model, as it is the first purely electric car of both brands. Electric cars sit on the same platform, share a lot of parts and also look similar. Well, they also have similar problems.
Last year, 2,700 units of the bZ4X model and 2,600 units of the Solterra model had to be serviced due to poorly secured wheels. Both car companies even stopped production for a while.
It was only two months after launch and no solterra had yet been delivered to a customer at that time. This time the situation is different. The screws will also be checked on cars that have already arrived to new owners.
Electromobility in the Czech Republic is still horribly dying. Cyprus has already overtaken us
Newly, however, only Solterra models are being recalled, because the “sloppy” service is said to be the fault of a contracted contractor who only worked on Subaru models last year. According to the automaker, “he did not properly complete the repair procedure, which resulted in the risk of significantly undertightened screws.”
So Toyota can rest easy. Yet. However, the question is how much the problems will erode customer confidence. In addition, none of the electric cars really shines among the competition, they lag behind, for example, in the range of a single charge. Both Subaru and Toyota probably envisioned their entry into the field of electromobility differently.
walk, TN.cz
