On the afternoon of April 7, Tesla filed a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation, and since April 7, it has recalled some imported and domestically produced Model 3 electric vehicles, totaling 127,800 vehicles.
According to media reports, before the recall, many Tesla owners have reported that the vehicle stalled during the drive and almost had a traffic accident, reminding the relevant owners to pay attention to safety.
Since last year, with the growth of sales, Tesla's quality problems have also occurred frequently. At the same time, the price increase of Tesla cars is becoming more and more frequent. On April 7, Tesla's official website in the United States showed that Tesla once again increased the price of the American Model 3 long-endurance and high-performance version of the model. Previously, on March 10, Tesla in the United States had raised the sales price, and then Tesla China also increased the price; on March 15, Tesla China raised the price of some models.
In the secondary market, Tesla's stock price has recently performed strongly, rising 49% between March 15 and April 4, and has retreated 8.7% from its highs in the past two trading days (April 5 and April 6), with the latest market value of $1.08 trillion, about 6.88 trillion yuan.
Tesla recalled more than 127,800 Model 3s
According to the news of the State Administration for Market Regulation on the afternoon of April 7, Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. recently filed a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulations in accordance with the requirements of the Regulations on the Administration of the Recall of Defective Automobile Products and the Implementation Measures for the Administration of the Recall of Defective Automobile Products.
As of April 7, 2022, the recall will recall a total of 127785 imported and domestically produced Model 3 electric vehicles with production dates from January 11, 2019 to January 25, 2022 (including 34,207 imported Model 3 vehicles and 93,578 domestic Model 3 vehicles).
There may be minor manufacturing differences in the rear motor inverter power semiconductor components of vehicles within the scope of this recall, and the component manufacturing differences after some vehicles have been used for a period of time may cause the rear inverter to fail, resulting in the inverter not being able to control the current normally. This failure occurs when the vehicle is in a parked state, which will cause the vehicle to fail to start; this failure occurs when the vehicle is in a driving state, which will cause the vehicle to lose driving power, and in extreme cases, it may increase the risk of collision of the vehicle, and there is a safety hazard.
Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. will upgrade the motor control software for vehicles within the scope of the recall free of charge through the vehicle remote upgrade (OTA) technology; for vehicles that cannot be recalled through the vehicle remote upgrade (OTA) technology, they will contact relevant users through the service center to upgrade the motor control software for the vehicle to closely monitor the rear motor inverter of the vehicle, and timely replace the rear inverter with related failures free of charge to eliminate safety hazards.
The recall was carried out in the context of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) initiating a defect investigation. Affected by the investigation, Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. decided to take recall measures to eliminate potential safety hazards.
Due to quality problems, Tesla has recalled cars several times before
It should be pointed out that Tesla has recalled cars many times before due to quality problems.
On February 18 this year, Tesla China recalled 26,000 domestically produced Model 3 and Y electric vehicles. The electronic expansion valve of the heat pump in some vehicles within the scope of the recall will have a slight movement when positioning, because the software does not have a correction function, which may cause the valve to be partially opened for a long time, the heat pump compressor to stop working, and the heating function in the car to fail.
In the above state, especially when the temperature outside the car is lower than minus 10 degrees, the windshield defrosting system cannot achieve the defrosting effect stipulated by the relevant national laws and regulations, and the decline of the defrost function adversely affects the driver's field of vision, thereby increasing the possibility of collision risk of the vehicle when driving in cold weather, and there is a safety hazard.
On December 31, 2021, Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. recalled some domestically produced Model 3 electric vehicles, a total of 144,200 vehicles, mainly involving the trunk cover problem; at the same time, Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. recalled some imported Model S electric vehicles, a total of 19,697 (mainly involving the front trunk lock latch problem), and recalled some imported Model 3 electric vehicles, a total of 35,836 vehicles (mainly involving the trunk cover problem).
On December 3, 2021, Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. recalled some domestically produced Model Y electric vehicles, totaling 21,599. Tesla said that some vehicles within the scope of this recall may not meet the design requirements due to supplier manufacturing reasons. In the process of vehicle use, the steering knuckle may be deformed or broken, and the suspension linkage may be detached from the knuckle under extreme stress conditions, affecting the driving control of the vehicle, increasing the risk of collision accidents, and there are potential safety hazards.
In the United States, Tesla's recall scale is also very large, according to incomplete statistics, in late January and mid-February, Tesla launched four recalls in the United States, involving more than 1.47 million units.
Tesla Motors has recently raised prices frequently
On April 7, Tesla's official website showed that Tesla once again raised the price of the American Model 3 Long Range (long range) and Performance (high-performance version) models.
Specifically, the starting price of the Model 3 long-endurance version was adjusted to $55,990, an increase of $1,500 from the previous $54,490; the starting price of the Model 3 high-performance version was adjusted to $62,990, an increase of $1,000 compared to the previous $61,990; the price of the entry-level Model 3 was unchanged, and the price was still $46,990.
It is worth noting that in just one month, Tesla has raised prices several times. At present, it is not clear whether this price adjustment will be synchronized to the Chinese market.
On March 10, Tesla in the United States raised the price, raising the starting price of the Model 3 long-endurance version, Model Y long-range version and Model Y high-performance version by $1,000. On the same day, Tesla China's price for these three models rose by 10,000 yuan, at that time, Tesla China's official website showed that the price of the Model 3 high-performance version was adjusted to 349,900 yuan, and the price of the Model Y long-endurance and high-performance version was raised to 357,900 yuan and 397,900 yuan, respectively.
On March 15, Tesla China raised its price again. Among them, the price of the Model 3 high-performance version was raised by 18,000 yuan from March 10, and the adjusted price was 367,900 yuan; the price of the Model Y long-endurance and high-performance version was 375,900 yuan and 417,900 yuan, respectively, up 18,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan from 357,900 yuan and 397,900 yuan on March 10.
Affected by the continuous sharp rise in upstream raw materials, since March, not only Tesla, but also New energy models such as Xiaopeng, Ideal, Nezha, WM, ANDD have also announced price increases, ranging from thousands of yuan to 20,000 yuan. In this wave of new energy vehicle price increases, Tesla has the earliest price increase time, the most times and the largest amplitude.
New energy vehicles are selling hotly, and the industry continues to have a high boom
However, even if the price increases, it has not stopped the hot sales of new energy vehicles.
In March, Xiaopeng delivered 15,414 vehicles, an increase of 202% year-on-year and 148% month-on-month; ideal delivery of 11,034 vehicles, an increase of 125% year-on-year, an increase of 31% month-on-month; Weilai delivered 9,985 vehicles in March, an increase of 37.6% year-on-year, an increase of 63% month-on-month; in addition, Nezha Automobile delivered 12,026 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 270%, and the monthly sales of zero-run cars exceeded 10,000, reaching 10,059 units.
BYD's new energy vehicle sales in March reached a new high of 105,000 units, up 333% year-on-year and 18.8% month-on-month. On April 3, BYD officially announced that it will stop the production of fuel vehicles from March 2022. This means that BYD has become the first traditional car company in the world to announce the suspension of fuel vehicles.
In early April, Tesla also released its first quarter 2022 delivery report. According to the data, in the first quarter of 2022, Tesla's global delivery volume exceeded 310,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of more than 60%, and it still maintained a high level of delivery under the global epidemic and chip shortage and lithium battery supply challenges, and then broke the record. Some analysts said that with the commissioning of Tesla's Berlin plant in Germany and the Texas plant in the United States, Tesla sales are expected to continue to maintain rapid growth this year.
In October last year, Tesla CEO Musk said that Tesla is confident that it can maintain an annual delivery growth rate of more than 50%, and expects to achieve annual deliveries of 20 million vehicles in 2030.
Ping An Securities analysts Zhu Dong, Wang De'an and others pointed out that overall, the year-on-year data of new energy vehicles in March still maintained a strong growth trend, and the month-on-month data also showed a seasonal recovery, the demand side was not affected by product price increases, and the high prosperity was still maintained. With the acceleration of the policy side and the car enterprise side, the penetration of new energy vehicles in the global market is ushering in a new round of acceleration, and the industry boom is constantly rising.
Ni Yujing, an analyst at Everbright Securities, said that she continues to be optimistic about the steady increase in the penetration rate of domestic new energy vehicles, and it is expected that domestic new energy passenger car sales will be about 5-5.5 million in 2022.