Tesla Inc.
TSLA 5.83%
remembers approximately 135,000 Model S luxury sedans and Model X sports utility vehicles for malfunctions on the touch screen, one of the biggest safety actions of the electric car manufacturer.
The move comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called for a withdrawal last month, saying the touch screen in some models may fail when a memory chip runs out of storage capacity, affecting features such as defrosting, cornering functionality and assistance. the driver. The agency said the problem affected about 158,000 vehicles, including Model S sedans built between 2012 and early 2018 and Model X vehicles manufactured from 2016 to early 2018.
The reason for the discrepancy between the NHTSA figure and the number of vehicles Tesla intends to recall was not immediately clear.
Tesla said in a letter to federal regulators released Tuesday that while it does not agree that the problem is a vehicle defect, it continues a withdrawal to complete the investigation and provide customers with a better experience.
“Economically, if not technologically, it is impossible to expect that such components can or should be designed to withstand the entire useful life of the vehicle,” Tesla said in the letter.
Although the recall will be modest compared to other car safety measures, which sometimes affect millions of vehicles, the action represents a relatively large number of Teslas. The company delivered about 500,000 vehicles worldwide last year, about 40 percent of them to the United States, according to market research firm Motor Intelligence. Tesla does not sell by region.
The electric vehicle manufacturer recalled approximately 123,000 Model S cars in 2018, following the finding that some screws corroded in cold weather, which could lead to power steering failures.
Tesla has a much better financial base than three years ago. The company reported six profitable quarters in a row, and its cash holdings totaled about $ 19.4 billion at the end of last year. Its market valuation of about $ 796 billion since Monday has been higher than that of the next nine major combined automakers, according to an analysis of Dow Jones FactSet market data.
Federal regulators have said that the problem with Tesla’s touch screens can take about five to six years to manifest. Tesla has tried to use over-the-air updates to fix the problem, but those efforts have been insufficient, regulators said.
About 12,600 vehicles have already experienced these touch screen issues since last summer, when Tesla provided data to regulators. All touch screens in the approximately 158,000 affected vehicles will eventually fail, the regulator said it was told by Tesla.
The reminder comes as the auto industry struggles with a lack of computer chips that has disrupted global production.
Tesla said it would replace the free hardware as part of the recall, but will do so in stages due to party constraints.
Deliveries of Model S and Model X vehicles, Tesla’s state-of-the-art offerings, have recently declined. The company said last week that it is refreshing both models.
Write to Rebecca Elliott at [email protected]
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