Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Tesla Recalls 13000 Cars for HUGE battery issue

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Tesla Recalls 13000 Cars for HUGE battery issue · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a show where we Tesla has announced a recall of
• 0:10
  roughly 13,000 vehicles in the United States.
• 0:13
  The affected vehicles include certain 2025 Model 3 sedans
• 0:16
  built between March 8th and August 12th and certain 2026
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  Model YSUVS built between March 15th and August 15th.
• 0:24
  Tesla said the recall stems from a defect in the battery pack
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  contactor, which is a component that may open while the
• 0:31
  vehicle's in drive, causing loss of power and the inability to
• 0:35
  apply torque. The company said it reviewed 36
• 0:38
  warranty claims and 26 field reports to identify this issue.
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  Tesla identified 2 suppliers tied to the defective part
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  Systemis Mesatronicos. I'm sorry, I just butchered
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  that. And they're in Mexico.
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  That's a very long name. And I it's MEC Mechatronicos
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  Intika Sappi in Mexico, which is a Tier 2 supplier and Sanchuan
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  USA Inc in Taiwan, it was a Tier 1 supplier.
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  The recall covers vehicles equipped with battery pack
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  contactors manufactured with an Intika solenoid.
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  Now, Tesla said to replace the affected contactor with a
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  certified unit that does not contain the Intaca solenoid and
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  maintains a coil termination connection at no cost to owners.
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  The company also said it is notifying all potentially
• 1:30
  affected owners. From a consumer perspective, the
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  immediate risk is clear. A sudden loss of drive power
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  while in motion is a safety hazard, especially if the
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  vehicles in traffic emerging. The technical detail is that the
• 1:43
  contactor may open unexpectedly, cutting off current flow from
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  the battery pack. Now that failure mode means the
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  motor loses torque in the car may decelerate or lose Dr.
• 1:55
  capabilities. Now from Tesla's operational
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  side, this recall raises a few questions.
• 2:01
  First, how many units will actually encounter this issue in
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  the field and Tesla estimates approximately 8000 model wise
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  and 5000 Model 3's are affected. Second, what is the root cause
• 2:13
  path from supplier defect to in vehicle failure?
• 2:17
  Tesla points to the Intika solenoid and coil termination
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  connection issues in the contactor.
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  And 3rd, what's the cost impact for Tesla?
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  Recall itself may be limited to about 13,000 vehicles, but the
• 2:31
  brand impact could ripple if owners lose confidence in the
• 2:34
  ability for Tesla to make a safe car.
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  Now, for Tesla owners outside the US, this recall may trigger
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  a closer inspection of whether vehicles built in other regions
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  share the same components. And while the recall notice
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  currently only covers US vehicles built in those specific
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  windows, Tesla vehicles are produced globally and many
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  components may cross markets. Now, prospective buyers may
• 3:00
  interpret this as a caution signal.
• 3:02
  Tesla's vehicle reliability narrative takes a hit when a
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  drive power failure, this is very serious, leads to a recall.
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  I mean, let's just think about this for a second.
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  If you're merging lanes and you'll lose complete power and
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  you needed that power to get into the lane safely and you
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  have a car that's speeding up behind you.
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  You know you're going say if you're, you're in a lane and
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  you're trying to pass somebody and your lane is going about 50
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  miles an hour. They're they're slow and you
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  need to get into the left lane. If you're in the US and you need
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  to get a little bit of power so you can swoop over into the left
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  lane because this person in front of you going is a little
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  bit slow. You want to make a safe lane
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  change. You accelerate a little bit and
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  while you're accelerating, there's a car behind you in the
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  left lane that's coming up to you at a decent amount of speed.
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  70 miles an hour, right? Like that's a normal highway
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  speed. What if you're merging?
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  You're going 60 to merge left because that other guy's going
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  50 and this person that's going 7075 is coming up behind you
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  fast. You lose power mid pullover like
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  mid shift in lanes, then what happens?
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  There's a possible accident that's going to happen because
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  this person that's going 75 miles an hour expects you to
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  accelerate to 70 miles an hour if you get in the left lane,
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  right? And I mean, these things happen
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  all the time. And it's not just with incidents
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  with power failure, but it happens all the time in regular
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  highways. People don't merge properly and
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  they don't have the right speed timed out.
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  So if you do have the right speed, time to, if you'd have it
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  all figured out in your head and you're going to do that merge
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  and then all of a sudden you don't have power, then what?
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  Then what do you do if you have no power at all?
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  You get slammed into by that other car that's going 70 miles
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  an hour. I'm not trying to doomsday this
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  at all, not at all. I'm just telling you a scenario
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  that it is possible this could happen.
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  So anybody that has one of these vehicles, I urge you to go get
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  it checked out, take it to your Tesla dealer, have them look it
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  over, have them fix the problem. You know, if electric vehicles
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  are considered safer than ICE vehicles because of the
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  batteries, because of the powertrain, because of the fact
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  that you can accelerate so fast, then this is stopping that.
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  And if there's, you know, if they do end up with 13,000
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  vehicles ish around there that are affected, that's a decent
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  chunk of vehicles. You know, they have millions of
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  vehicles on the road. But if they find others that
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  this is happening to even in other countries, they should
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  really focus on getting this taken care of as soon as
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  possible. Now, battery pack and a high
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  voltage systems are very finicky, right?
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  It's a critical risk vector that people have to watch out for
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  because if this happens to some vehicles, there may be other
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  vehicles that this hasn't happened to yet or hasn't been
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  talked about yet. And maybe it's the supplier,
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  maybe it's another supplier that's doing a different part
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  like this. So these are all the things that
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  can go through somebody's mind when they're buying a, a Tesla.
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  If you're going to drop $60,000 on a vehicle, you want it to
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  perform well. And as we know, every vehicle
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  has things that it doesn't do well, but most vehicles are
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  designed to merge lanes properly and continue powering through
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  things like that. So if you're going to buy a
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  Tesla and you're dead set on getting an EV, maybe you're
• 6:46
  going to look at a Rivian, maybe you're going to look at a
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  Porsche. If, you know, maybe if you're
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  not in the USABYD would be a good choice for you because they
• 6:56
  don't have this issue now. And that's I'm just talking
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  hypothetically for people who are in the market to buy an EV
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  right now, they might look at this and go, hey, man, this says
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  this doesn't sound safe for my kids.
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  I don't want this to happen to my kids.
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  You know, I'm, I'm merging lanes.
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  I'm taking my kids home from ballet or soccer practice or
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  whatever, you know, going to a camping trip and I'm trying to
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  merge lanes safely. I'm going up a hill in my, my
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  car loses power when it's shifting lanes.
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  That's one scenario. You know, that's a horrible
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  thing to think about when you're a parent.
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  Also, you buy an EV because you know, it has that acceleration
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  and it clicks it off in your head.
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  Like he meant I might not have acceleration all the time.
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  Because this one thing, this one fault, I, I heard about it.
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  So there's a thing that could happen to Tesla's.
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  So, you know, the consumer should be wary of things like
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  this. You should take these things
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  into consideration when you actually buy a a new vehicle,
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  especially an expensive vehicle like a Tesla anywhere from
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  45,000 to over $100,000. You know model threes and model
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  wise right now, but who knows what other vehicles are impacted
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  because we don't have the data from that supplier from those
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  two suppliers, right? The the Mexican supplier and the
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  Taiwan supplier, Tier 2 and Tier 1 suppliers.
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  So we don't have that data and Tesla will definitely have that
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  data coming soon. So Tesla, you know, they might
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  be selling more used model threes and model wise because
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  they're not the same models as the ones that are affected.
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  But you should check your build date when you buy your vehicle
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  just in case when you go to Tesla, when you talk with them,
• 8:56
  you know, when you chat with their support on their website,
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  make sure that the model that you buy is not one of these
• 9:01
  models. Make sure it's a different
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  model. You know, you can get a model
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  wire model 3, but make sure it isn't within that time frame of
• 9:08
  these things of these batteries, the components being being
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  faulty, the contactor. So Tesla only did March and
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  August, March 8th and August 12th for Model Threes and Model
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  YSUV is March 15th and August 15th.
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  Look for those dates when you're going out to purchase a Tesla.
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  Like I said, I'm a huge Tesla fan.
• 9:35
  I just got to let you know the information and I'm sorry about
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  the supplier name. I murder that.
• 9:42
  I butchered that. But it's a difficult name to say
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  and I haven't said in a while, so I apologize for that.
• 9:53
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 9:55
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 9:57
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• 10:02
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• 10:05
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• 10:08
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• 10:10
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• 10:13
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• 10:16
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• 10:22
  and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.