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Tesla Recalls 2,700 Model X Cars, Highlighting Risk of Massive Model 3 Rollout (bgr.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Tesla has recalled 2,700 Model X cars due to a design flaw affecting the vehicle's third row of seats. Specifically, a faulty locking hinge on the last row of seats could potentially cause the seats to collapse forward during a crash. "Despite [15] prior successful tests and no reports of a third row seat slipping in any customer vehicles," Tesla said in an email to affected owners, "we have decided to conduct a voluntary recall as a precautionary measure and will be replacing all affected third row seat backs." Even though the Model X recall is small, it brings to mind the Model 3 and what possible manufacturing issues will pertain to it. BGR writes, "The current number of Model 3 reservations is absolutely staggering and Tesla will have no choice but to get as many Model 3s manufactured and out on the road as soon as humanly possible. So even in a best-case scenario where the rollout of the Model 3 goes swimmingly, Tesla will need to do all it can to ensure that the Model 3s rolling off the line in late 2018 and early 2019 are flawless." Recalling 2,700 vehicles is one thing, but a recall affecting the Model 3 could be a logistical and publicity nightmare.
i agree, I read an article 3 years ago when Toyota was having issues with recalls and they mentioned in England alone they have over 30 recalls a month 4-8 of them serious the rest to be fixed on the next service.
I agree with you, but it is worth keeping in mind that when Japanese vehicles were first being introduced into this country they were built much better than their domestic counterparts. Granted, they were cheap econoboxes, but they were well built econoboxes. Now that they're established, the build quality of a Honda or Toyota isn't that much better than a Ford or Chevy. I'm sure Tesla has studied this, they know they need an excellent safety and reliability record if they wish to become a major player in the market. In the long run, it's better business to take a small loss on a recall than deal with lost sales from bad publicity. Damn though, it's refreshing to see a company looking more than a few quarters ahead.
Now consider the number of scandals in recent years from serious people-killing problems in cars where the companies knew about it and did not do a recall.
Tessla is pushing itself as a market-creator, and a key part of their strategy is to over-engineer in the extreme. They want to prove the viability of electric cars and part of how they go about it is to build the best cars in the world by not sparing expenses or trying to maximize margins. This is exactly why every non-Tessla electric car is so much cheaper: there's no reason an electric car has to cost that much, you can do it much cheaper if you don't over-engineer to build the highest-quality, safest, vehicle in history.
But when that's your strategy - a single person dying because of a bad seat that the company knew about would utterly destroy it. The risk to the company is far higher than the norm. To not do this recall would be crazy. GM and Toyota came out of their recent major scandals relatively unscathed, even a minor scandal would kill Tessla because Tessla is supposed to be the perfect car.
It makes absolute strategic sense for Tessla to do recalls at the slightest hint of a risk - it doesn't for most car companies, and that's a good argument for regulations with serious teeth. If the fall-out from "your car killed hundreds of people due to a flaw you knew about and ignored" is guaranteed to be "you're entire turn-over for the last 5 years" then the incentives for GM or Toyota or Ford to do recalls would be about on par with Tessla's and scandals like that wouldn't happen again.
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