| Wang Daye
Editor| Mao Shiyang
On April 7, the State Administration for Market Regulation showed that Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tesla) have recovered some imported and domestically produced Model 3 electric vehicles, totaling 128,000 vehicles.
It is worth noting that just a few hours before the recall announcement, a Model 3 owner who was in danger due to the failure of the inverter had just written in the circle of car friends: "The problem may not have erupted in a large area, and I feel that my car may soon be required to be recalled." ”
In a word. Afterwards, the owner said Tesla admitted that the inverter failure was "a problem that almost tried out with life." ”
Under a lot of pressure, Tesla finally admitted that there was a problem.
After 2 months of pick-up, the Model 3 tunnel stalled
On April 6, a Tesla Model 3 owner broke the news that when he was driving through the high-speed tunnel, he encountered a thrilling scene in which the vehicle suddenly lost power.
"Difficult to escape the disaster, Tesla normal driving state, the highway on the fast lane more than 100 yards, the screen suddenly prompted the vehicle can not drive, please stop immediately, and then began to sharply reduce the speed, do not give me a little reaction time." At that time, driving inside the tunnel, a sudden stop would definitely be rear-ended. The owner of the car said, "The co-driver of the car sat my sister and her 3-month-old child, fortunately, I used the last speed to forcibly change 2 lanes, out of the tunnel and parked in the emergency lane, otherwise the consequences dare not imagine." ”
(Image source: Model3 activist car owner)
According to the owner's description, he is 2022 New Year's Day to mention this model3, usually in the process of using the car, the car will appear for no reason, after locking the car itself will run, the car will make a rumbling sound, reopen the door and close it will not have, but feel that it is a small problem, do not care.
After the car was towed away, Tesla initially confirmed that the fault code pointed to the inverter, but how the inverter caused the vehicle to lose control was not explained.
Due to the palpitations, the owner said that he would not accept repairs and replacements, and has reached a preliminary request with Tesla to return the car. Subsequently, the owner changed his nickname in the relevant car circle to "Tesla's initial rights protection success", and believed that Tesla's quality problem may not have exploded on a large scale, "I feel that this batch of cars may soon be required to be recalled."
On April 7, information about the Tesla Model 3's large-scale recall swept the internet.
Tesla admits to manufacturing flaws
Tesla said that in accordance with the requirements of the Regulations on the Administration of the Recall of Defective Automobile Products and the Implementation Measures for the Regulations on the Administration of the Recall of Defective Automobile Products, a recall plan was filed with the State Administration for Market Regulation.
Tesla will recall a total of 127785 Model 3s starting April 7.
On the reasons for Tesla's large-scale recall, Tesla said that there may be small manufacturing differences in the rear motor inverter power semiconductor components of the vehicle within the scope of the recall, which occurs when the vehicle is in the 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 are safety hazards.
Subsequently, Tesla related staff said that the recall can be achieved through OTA upgrades, and for special vehicles that cannot be upgraded remotely, users can contact the service center for upgrade services.
What is the purpose of the inverter that caused the risk? "Finance and Economics" weekly learned that the inverter is part of the electric drive system, its performance is directly related to the power output performance of the motor and the endurance performance of new energy vehicles, and is one of the core components of new energy vehicles.
"If it weren't for my experience, Tesla might not have realized that the inverter problem was so serious, and now it has begun to recall, indirectly recovering the loss of many owners and families." In response to the recall, the above-mentioned rights protection car owner told Caijing Tianxia Weekly, "It is equivalent to driving a car that is risky at any time." ”
Coincidentally. In some complaint platforms, you can often see many quality complaint cases due to inverter failure. In January 2021, Mr. Cao of Xingtai, Hebei Province, claimed that after driving his newly purchased Model 3 just into the underground garage, the whole car suddenly crashed, as if a foot on the brake was suffocated, but at that time, his foot was on the acceleration pedal, and it was checked as an inverter failure afterwards.
In the same month, a car owner who had just bought the Model 3 for only 6 days said that after charging at the Tesla supercharge station, the whole car could not start after the power was cut off. But at that time, Tesla did not admit that there was a quality problem with the inverter, and public information showed that Tesla staff said that the cause of the problem was that the current of the national grid was too large to cause the inverter to burn down, and there was no problem with the vehicle itself.
This remark was immediately refuted by the State Grid Nanchang Power Supply Company at the time: the voltage was normal at the time of the incident, in line with national regulations, and it was recommended that Tesla seriously find the reason for the vehicle. The matter ended with Tesla apologizing.
Ms. Zhang, who defended her rights on the roof of Tesla at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show station due to brake failure, also posted, "This Tesla recall was carried out under the circumstance that the State Administration for Market Regulation launched a defect investigation. A conscientious enterprise must learn to take the initiative to recall! ”
Negative haunting
In recent years, with the large increase in Tesla ownership, various quality problems have occurred frequently, such as brake failure, sudden acceleration, spontaneous combustion explosion, etc., Tesla has also launched a "litigation war" with the owner of the rights protection.
In May 2021, after Ms. Zhang filed a lawsuit with Tesla and claimed 50,000 yuan, tesla sued Ms. Zhang in September of the same year and demanded that she pay 5 million yuan in economic losses.
In this regard, Ms. Zhang raised the compensation from 50,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan. On December 24 of that year, Ms. Zhang's lawsuit against Tesla over the right to reputation was tried at the Beiguan District People's Court in Anyang City, Henan Province, but the verdict was not pronounced in court.
It is worth noting that April 8 this year is the final trial and judgment period of this dispute case, and Ms. Zhang posted through Weibo that the case was postponed to July 28.
In addition to Ms. Zhang, on March 14 this year, Ms. Lin, a Tesla owner in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, claimed that a brake failure occurred while driving the 2022 Model 3 in her garage, causing the vehicle to hit the garage wall. Tesla concluded that Ms. Lin was driving too fast, and the underground garage epoxy floor paint caused the garage floor to be too slippery. Ms. Lin repeatedly asked Tesla officials for driving data, but tesla employees refused.
Despite the negative news about quality, Tesla has relied on its technological innovation, and its performance and sales are still blooming on both sides.
Tesla's financial report data shows that tesla achieved total revenue of $53.7 billion in 2021, an increase of 71% year-on-year; achieved a net profit of $5.519 billion, an increase of 665% year-on-year. In terms of deliveries, Tesla delivered a total of 936,000 vehicles in the whole year, an increase of 87% compared with 2020, ranking first in the pure electric vehicle market.
According to tesla's first quarter report data, Tesla's global production exceeded 305,000 units in the first quarter of 2022; global deliveries in the first quarter exceeded 310,000 units, an increase of 68% year-on-year.
Tesla founder Elon Musk has publicly stated that Tesla is confident of maintaining an annual delivery growth rate of more than 50% and expects to achieve 20 million annual deliveries by 2030.
"It's really good that Tesla doesn't have a problem, and if it goes wrong, it's going to kill." I still don't deny its exterior interior and function, and if nothing else, I really love it. I have to say that Musk is too powerful and captures the psychology of the Chinese people, but still ignores many quality problems. A Tesla owner involved in rights protection told Caijing Weekly.
This article is originally produced by AI Finance and Economics, an account of Caijing Tianxia Weekly, without permission, please do not reprint it on any channel or platform. Violators will be prosecuted.