Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective

❗Article Status Notice: This Article is a stub

---

This article is underdeveloped, and needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Learn more ▼

Issues may include:

• This article needs to be expanded to provide meaningful information
• This article requires additional verifiable evidence to demonstrate systemic impact
• More documentation is needed to establish how this reflects broader consumer protection concerns
• The connection between individual incidents and company-wide practices needs to be better established
• The article is simply too short, and lacks sufficient content

How you can help:

• Add documented examples with verifiable sources
• Provide evidence of similar incidents affecting other consumers
• Include relevant company policies or communications that demonstrate systemic practices
• Link to credible reporting that covers these issues
• Flesh out the article with relevant information

This notice will be removed once the article is sufficiently developed. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the Discord (join here) and post to the #appeals channel, or mention its status on the article's talk page.

Short summary of the incident using references . Usually 2-3 sentences that summarize the contents or the article. When writing the article, insert text in the space below this box, and then delete this tip box (and the other tip boxes below). In the visual editor, just click on a box and press backspace to delete it. In the source editor, simply delete the double curly brackets, and the text inside them.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

Summary

A December 2023 Reuters investigation reveals faulty parts in Tesla vehicles have caused incidents of wheels falling off at speed, axles breaking under acceleration, control arms failing and the suspension collapsing without evidence of direct impact. Tesla told US regulators and service centres the failures were due to "vehicle misuse," despite the fact that internal documents show Tesla had been tracking these chronic flaws for years.

Background

Information about the product/service history to provide the necessary context surrounding the incident

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

[Incident]

Change this section's title to be descriptive of the incident.

Impartial and complete description of the events, including actions taken by the company, and the timeline of the incident coming to the public's attention.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

Tesla's response

If applicable, add the proposed solution to the issues by the company.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

Eight days after the Reuters investigation was published, Tesla responded with a post on the platform X (formerly known as Twitter) criticizing the investigation and its "wildly misleading" headline. As a response to the specific incident of Shreyansh Jain’s 2023 Tesla Model Y, Tesla pointed out that the customer photo represents the component was involved in a crash, and says "Most, if not all, manufacturer warranties exclude damages caused by a crash because that is the point of insurance coverage." Tesla also pointed out that as mentioned in the original Reuters article, Tesla paid for most of 120,000 vehicles covered under warranty when upper control arm failures were discovered in the Model S and Model X.

Tesla reiterates their service is not incentivised to profit off repair needs, that it is often done using a convenient OTA (Over-the-Air) update process and mobile service to the customer's home or workplace, and Tesla quotes a maintenance study to conclude "The numbers don’t lie in terms of repeat sales and customer satisfaction," while claiming Reuters' journalism was "cherry-picking" for negative information.

Lawsuit

If applicable, add any information regarding litigation around the incident here.

Claims

Main claims of the suit.

Rebuttal

The response of the company or counterclaims.

Outcome

The outcome of the suit, if any.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

Consumer response

Summary and key issues of prevailing sentiment from the consumers and commentators that can be documented via articles, emails to support, reviews and forum posts.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

References

Add a category with the same name as the product, service, website, software, product line or company that this article is about.

The "Incidents" category is not needed.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.