Tesla Inc.
TSLA 2.32%
Touch-screen failures, one of the electric-car manufacturer’s biggest safety actions, are recalling 135,000 Model S luxury sedans and Model X sport-utility vehicles.
The move comes after a recall by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month, stating that touch screens in some models may fail when memory chips run out of storage capacity, causing defrosting, turn-signal functionality And functions such as driver assistance are affected.
The agency said the problem affected about 158,000 vehicles, including Model S sedans manufactured between 2012 and early 2018 and Model X vehicles built through early 2016. It is not remembered that the group covered vehicles that had already been repaired with a larger memory. Chip or an upgraded touch screen according to NHTSA.
Tesla made public in a letter to federal regulators Tuesday that it disagreed that the issue constitutes a defect in the vehicles, with a recall going forward to end the investigation and provide a better experience for customers was growing.
Tesla said in the letter, “It is financially, if not technically, impossible to expect that such components can or should be designed for the entire useful life of the vehicle.”
Although the recall will be modest compared to other car-safety measures, which sometimes affect millions of vehicles, this action represents a relatively large number of Teslas. According to market research firm Motor Intelligence, the company delivered about 500,000 vehicles globally last year, about 40% of which are in the US. Tesla does not break its sales by region.
Sam Abulesimid, an analyst at Guidehouse Insights, estimated the recall to be around $ 200 million to $ 250 million. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company’s stock was approximately 1% premarket.
The electric-vehicle manufacturer recalled some 123,000 of its Model S cars in 2018, finding that some bolts occur in cold weather, which could cause power-steering to fail.
Tesla is at a much better financial level than it was three years ago. The company reported six consecutive profit quarters, and its total cash at the end of last year was approximately $ 19.4 billion. According to FactSet Data’s Dow Jones market data analysis, as of Monday, the market valuation of approximately $ 796 billion was larger than the next nine largest auto manufacturers.
Federal regulators have said that it could take about five to six years for a problem with Tesla’s touch screen to appear. Regulators said Tesla has tried to use over-the-air updates to measure the problem, but these efforts have been insufficient.
Roughly 12,600 vehicles experienced these touch-screen problems, similar to last summer, when Tesla provided data to regulators. All touch screens in about 158,000 affected vehicles will eventually fail, the regulator said, which was reported by Tesla.
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The auto industry is grappling with a computer-chip shortage that has disrupted the production world as a recall.
Tesla said it would replace the hardware for free as part of the recall, but would do so in phases due to lack of parts.
Delivery of Model S and Model X vehicles, Tesla’s high-end offerings, have recently ended. The company said last week that it was refreshing both models.
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