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Tesla recalls one in every four Model Ys it has made in the first 10 months of the year to fix faulty steering
- Recall will deter some Tesla supporters from buying its vehicles, analyst says
- US carmaker had to fix defective cruise-control functions through over-the-air software updates in 285,000 cars in June
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Tesla will recall more than 20,000 of its bestselling made-in-China Model Y sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) to fix a steering issue.
The US electric vehicle (EV) giant will recall 21,599 Model Ys produced in Shanghai between February 4 and October 30, or almost one in every four SUVs assembled in the first 10 months of the year, according to a statement by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). It needs to fix a faulty steering knuckle, which may break under extreme conditions and cause the vehicle to lose control.
This is not Tesla’s first recall and could hurt its sales in China, the world’s largest EV market.
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“The recall will deter some Tesla supporters from buying its vehicles,” said Eric Han, a senior manager with Shanghai-based business advisory Suolei. “All eyes will be on China’s Tesla competitors to see whether they can narrow the gap with the market leader.”
Tesla is the runaway leader in the country and was outselling its closest competitor five-to-one as recently as September. Since then, Chinese home-grown EV players NIO, Xpeng and Li Auto have all stepped up their pursuit of the US carmaker, with each reporting a record number of deliveries in November.
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In June, Tesla issued a recall of 285,000 cars in China to fix defective cruise-control functions. But these repairs were conducted through over-the-air software updates. The Model Y, which unexpectedly went on sale on New Year’s Day in a stealth launch by Tesla, is also battling an image problem, after customers complained about receiving cars with USB ports that did not perform all of their stated functions. This has been blamed on the global semiconductor chips shortage.
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