“NHTSA is examining the potential suspension issue on the Tesla Model S and is seeking additional information from vehicle owners and the company”, said Bryce Thomas, a spokesman for the federal agency.
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Even so, the company said it would work with NHTSA on the issue “to see if we can handle it differently”.
“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.
Update:NHTSA issued a statement saying that it has found no issue with Model S suspensions, and that it was satisfied with an amendment to Tesla made to its Goodwill agreement. As part of this agreement, it’s alleged Tesla would voluntarily fix a vehicle that’s not under warranty in exchange for the client’s promise not to report safety concerns to regulatory bodies. In response, the company has taken the matter into its own hands, denying there were safety defects in the suspension of its best-selling vehicle.
Tesla Motors on Tuesday unveiled the first changes to the body of its popular Model S electric sedan, which began production in 2012.
The chaos started when a very anti-Tesla sort of article was published online by Daily Kanban.
But whether or not there is a legitimate safety question to be examined here, another issue apparently is troubling to regulators: the allegation that Tesla has been trying to induce or pressure its customers to keep quiet about potential safety issues when they arise.
Since October, NHTSA said that it has received 33 complaints of suspension parts breakage.
The Palo Alto company said that one of its cars had an abnormal amount of rust on a suspension part, a problem it hasn’t seen in any other vehicle. The blog also pointed to a possible defect in Tesla’s Model X sport-utility vehicle. Tesla added that it was cooperating with the NHTSA and that the agency has said it doesn’t need any further information from the company. The auto had 70,000 miles on it and was out of warranty, so Tesla apparently told the owner that the company would not pay for his repairs.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggests “fraudulent” complaints are being submitted to the United States government about its Model S cars. In such incidents, the Tesla team either conducts repairs for free or provides discounts to keep customers satisfied, and asks them to sign a Goodwill Agreement.
UPDATE: Tesla Motors posted a blog late June 10 explaining the alleged suspension failure was an unusual isolated incident, and that its offer to fix the suspension for free was part of a “goodwill agreement”.
Tesla’s post also says that Cordaro “lives down such a long dirt road that it required two tow trucks to retrieve the vehicle”.
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The NHTSA referred to the customer gag-order as a “troublesome non-disclosure agreement”, no doubt particularly unsettling to the agency because it would likely shut the NHTSA out of investigating the customers’ automotive safety concerns.
