Tesla will recall up to 30,000 vehicles in China for allegedly defective suspensions. The move was announced by the Chinese government Friday last week and will involve the Model S and Model X that were shipped from the United States between September 2013 and January 2018. Two specific problems have been identified.
According to China's State Administration for Market Regulation, one or both the concerned vehicle defects could be found on the units that were subject to the recall directive. And as indicated, none of the vehicles were assembled locally.
Bloomberg reported that Tesla's Shanghai manufacturing facilities, which can build 200,000 EVs per year, have only started rolling out electric vehicles in the early months of 2020 and these units are believed to have been excluded from the recall order.
Specifically, the Tesla Model 3 has been left out from the recall order, which is favorable for Tesla as the locally produced vehicle is deemed the most popular in the country.
The publication also noted that the automaker's representatives in China have yet to issue an official statement on the matter, which the report characterized as a notable setback for Tesla.
In China, however, recall orders were normally prompted by product defects that state regulators view as potential safety hazards. The Chinese authorities have yet to make clear if the wide-ranging Tesla recall will fall into the same category.
And it's the same thing for Tesla as the company remained silent in the immediate days after the recall order was issued. CNET said it could be due to the automaker's lack of a PR department that would clear out questions to arise from similar incidents.
In any case, it seemed that the best explanation from Tesla, for now, was the best communication between the company's legal department and the NHTSA in the U.S. The letter sent to the agency indicated that Tesla disagreed with China's findings that the suspected defective suspensions merited the recall of all Model S and Model X imported into the Asian country, per the report by Electrek.
Elizabeth H. Mykytiuk, Tesla's managing counsel for regulatory affairs, informed the U.S. government that China concluded the recall was warranted and the company "has decided not to dispute a recall for the China market only."
Mykytiuk further explained that the damages explained by Tesla vehicle owners were deemed to have been caused by "driver abuse" and possibly aggravated by the existing road condition in China. Tesla pointed out that curb impact and severe pothole strike will certainly damage or accelerate the wearing out of specific vehicle components such as the suspension system.
The EV maker said such cases of suspension failure were seen in about 0.05% of Tesla vehicles released outside of the Chinese market. In China, the same incidents have affected 0.1% of Tesla EVs running in the country, thus indicating a higher possibility that the problem is more prevalent among Chinese users of Tesla vehicles.
