Tens of thousands affected.
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Internal Tesla documents, as well as conversations with over 20 owners and nine former employees, show how tens of thousands of newer Teslas have experienced failure in critical parts such as wheel suspension or steering.
The problems go back several years and concern Tesla models that have been sold in all corners of the world. It comes out in a disclosure from Reuters Wednesday.
Well acquainted with the problems internally
The internal documents obtained by Reuters show that Tesla has been aware of the problems and their extent for a long time. The company’s engineers have themselves referred to them as “deficiencies” and “failures” internally. This is in contrast to Tesla’s previous statements, where they have denied knowledge of the same problems to customers and regulatory authorities, while at the same time trying to push the repair costs onto car owners.
At least 11 Tesla owners have reported accidents that have been directly caused by suspension or steering failure, the disclosure shows.
Lost control the day after purchase
According to Reuters, one of the most startling cases involves a Tesla owner from England. Just one day after purchasing a 2023 Tesla Model Y, he and his family experienced the front suspension collapse while driving, causing him to lose control of the car.
Despite the fact that the problem was serious, and occurred while the car was brand new, Tesla refused to cover the repair costs. Instead, they blamed “previous damage to the suspension”.
Disregard own engineers
Many of the problems Tesla owners most often report are due to failures in relatively inexpensive parts, such as control arms and joint bolts, but also more expensive components such as steering devices and drive shafts.
Tesla has previously accused customers of driving the car hard or otherwise abusing the cars before some of the faults occurred. At the same time that their own engineers have internally pointed out how the errors were not due to external influences, and that the company must cover repairs needed during the warranty period.
Neither Tesla nor CEO Elon Musk has responded to Reuters’ inquiries in the matter. We have asked Tesla Norway for a comment, but they did not get back to us before publication.
Jumboplass in German EU control
In November, it became clear that Tesla’s Model 3 came out by far the weakest after TÜV had compiled a list of which newer cars received the most comments during EU inspections in Germany.
As many as 14.3 percent of the Model 3s that were checked were classified with defects of the type “significant” or “dangerous”. Best were models from German car manufacturers such as Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes.
2023-12-20 18:32:03
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