Safety is obviously at the top of electric-car maker Tesla Motors priorities. Today, the company issued a recall for most of its Model X cars. McNeill said the seats met USA standards when tested, but Tesla made a decision to move forward because “our European customers and our American customers are equally important to us”.
Advertisement
This week, the electric carmaker has started to notify Model X owners in the United States that the SUV may have a faulty locking hinge in the third-row seats that increases the risk for the seats to fall forward in an accident. Image source: Tesla Motors.
Those bearish on Tesla’s outlook are quick to point to this recall as further indication of Tesla’s inability to deliver on its promises.
The test was done in preparation for shipping new Model X SUVs to Europe.
While there have not been any reports of the issue, customers received an email asking them to bring their vehicle to a dealership to have it checked.
Tesla said it conducted 15 similar tests before starting deliveries in North America, and not one time did the recliner fail.
Tesla said it worked with its supplier to develop a new recliner design with “improved quality” that resolves the issue. Here’s why investors shouldn’t worry. “We are now constructing new third row seat backs to match all affected vehicles”. In this particular instance, Tesla’s slow production on the Model X actually turned out to be a good thing insofar as they were able to catch the problem with a relatively small number of affected cars on the road. According to McNeil, Model X production remains on track and the voluntary recall will not affect the production rate. Tesla has also added the HEPA air-filtrations system from the Model X as an option on the 2016 Model S. The filter removes “99.97 percent of particulate exhaust pollution and effectively all allergens, bacteria, and other contaminants from cabin air”.
The automaker says it is being proactive in ordering the recall to ensure the safety of its customers.
Advertisement
The recall is just the latest problem for the Model X, which was already late coming to market because of issues with the the independently operable second-row seats and with the so- called “falcon-wing” doors that open vertically. Those that were built after this date are not being recalled. And we think its stock price has almost unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors!
