The blogger who broke news about Tesla (TSLA) Model S suspension problems under review by the top USA auto-safety regulator may have been motivated by financial gain, the maker of electric cars suggested in a blog post.
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In recent months, several Tesla customers on social media have written about suspension failures, in some cases after just 70,000 miles (110,000 kilometres). The NHTSA is concerned that Tesla strong armed owners into not reporting the potentially unsafe safety defect to the agency.
According to Tesla, the NHTSA requested additional information on its suspension systems on April 20.
The billionaire’s Tesla Motors denied there were possible suspension problems with its electric cars – and added in a freakish blog post that a customer who complained lived on a “long, dirt road” that may have caused “very abnormal rust” on the suspension ball of his Model S. The regulator also told Tesla it shouldn’t discourage customers from reporting safety concerns, and Tesla said that wasn’t the company’s intention, Thomas said. It said, in part: “You agree to keep confidential our provision of the Goodwill, the terms of this agreement and the incidents or claims leading or related to our provision of the Goodwill”. Tesla expressed high confidence on its vehicles’ suspension.
Unfortunately for everybody involved, Tesla published a reply in an unusual style, and suggested we take those claims with “a grain of salt”, as the title of the post referring to the situation suggests.
In a sign of new differences between the upstart Silicon Valley automaker and the United States auto safety regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration raised questions about a “troublesome nondisclosure agreement” the company asks customers to sign for repairs.
Tesla did not miss the opportunity of pointing the finger at the client that complained in the first place, saying that it is “deeply ironic” that the only customer who complained about this document as if it forbid him from speaking with the NHTSA is also the same one who contacted the authority. “NHTSA has since told us that we have cooperated fully and that no further information is needed”, said the automaker.
“It is worth noting that the blogger who fabricated this issue, which then caused negative and incorrect news to be written about Tesla by reputable institutions, is Edward Niedermayer”, the post said.
In a post on its website, Tesla acknowledged presenting a “Goodwill Agreement” to customers given free or discounted repairs.
The NHTSA on Thursday said it was examining the suspension problem. We hope that representatives from NHTSA and Tesla can speak to one another like civilized people and work through any safety or legal concerns.
Tesla even went as far as to ask affected owners to sign confidentiality agreements.
US auto safety regulators have chastised Tesla Motors over reports that it used nondisclosure agreements with consumers in exchange for covering out-of-warranty fix costs on some of its vehicles.
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The online message-board post from Mr. Cordaro, the Pennsylvania Model S owner, ignited a series of events that led to Tesla’s long blog post defending its vehicles and practices. The company noted that NTHSA is not mentioned anywhere in the agreement.
