Tesla Inc.
TSLA 5.83%
recalls approximately 135,000 Model S luxury sedans and Model X utility sports vehicles for touch screen failures, one of the electric car maker’s biggest safety actions.
The move comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month called for a withdrawal, saying some models’ touch screens may fail when a memory chip runs out of storage capacity. , affecting features such as defrosting, shift signal functionality and driver assistance The agency said the problem affected approximately 158,000 vehicles, including Model S sedans manufactured between 2012 and early 2018 and Model vehicles X manufactured from 2016 to early 2018.
The reason for the discrepancy between the NHTSA figure and the number of vehicles Tesla plans to recall was not immediately clear.
Tesla said in a letter to federal regulators it was made public Tuesday that while it did not agree that the problem was a defect in vehicles, it was moving forward with a withdrawal to conclude the investigation and provide a better experience to customers.
“It is economically, if not technologically, unfeasible to expect these components to be or should be designed to last the entire life of the vehicle,” Tesla said in the letter.
While the withdrawal will be modest compared to other car safety measures, which sometimes affect millions of vehicles, the stock represents a relatively large number of Teslas. The company delivered about 500,000 vehicles worldwide last year, about 40 percent of them in the United States, according to market research firm Motor Intelligence. Tesla does not separate its sales by region.
The electric vehicle manufacturer recalled about 123,000 of its Model S vehicles in 2018 for the finding that some bolts corroded in cold weather, which could lead to power steering failures.
Tesla has a much better financial base than three years ago. The company has reported six consecutive profitable quarters and its cash stakes totaled about $ 19.4 billion at the end of last year. Its market valuation of about $ 796 billion on Monday was higher than that of the nine largest automakers combined, according to a Dow Jones market data analysis from FactSet data.
Federal regulators have said the problem with Tesla touch screens could take five to six years to manifest. Tesla has tried to use antenna upgrades to fix the problem, but those efforts have been insufficient, regulators said.
Approximately 12,600 vehicles had already experienced these touch screen issues since last summer, when Tesla provided data to regulators. All touch screens of the approximately 158,000 affected vehicles would eventually fail, according to regulator Tesla.
The withdrawal comes when the auto industry is struggling with a shortage of computer chips that has disrupted production around the world.
Tesla said it would replace the hardware for free as part of the recall, but would do so in phases due to party restrictions.
Deliveries of Model S and Model X vehicles, Tesla’s top-of-the-range offerings, have recently dwindled. The company said last week that it refreshes both models.
Write to Rebecca Elliott to [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8