LDN - Business

Tesla faces inquiry by Norway's safety regulator over suspension failures

[December 21, 2023] By Marie Mannes

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Tesla faces an inquiry by Norway's traffic safety regulator into suspension failures in the company's electric cars that could result in a recall, the agency told Reuters.

Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) senior engineer Tor-Ove Satren said the agency started questioning Tesla in September 2022 and asked the automaker to assess consumer complaints about lower rear control arms breaking on its Model S and X vehicles.

Satren said the agency could recommend that Tesla recall all model years of the S and X vehicles to replace rear lower control arms if it determines they pose a "serious risk."

However, it could also close the review with no action if there is no safety issue or decide to extend the investigation.

A decision is expected by Christmas. The agency has the authority to order a recall if an automaker refuses.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

News of the NPRA inquiry, which has not been previously reported, follows a Reuters investigation published Wednesday that exposed how Tesla has blamed drivers for frequent failures of suspension and steering parts that it has long known were defective.

Facing soaring warranty costs, Tesla sought to slash spending on repairs in part by attributing the failures to "driver abuse," according to the report, which was based on thousands of Tesla documents and interviews with former employees, including service managers and technicians in Norway.

The regulatory review in Norway was prompted by more than 10 customer reports to the agency in 2022 about suspension parts such as the control arm suddenly breaking.

The Reuters investigation found that Tesla control arm failures were a constant problem in Norway, one of the company's biggest European markets.

The reports to the NPRA, obtained by Reuters through a public records request, include one from a customer who wrote: "Control arm broken off. This is a damage MANY other Teslas have received. Direct traffic hazard."

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A general view of a Tesla store in Porsgrunn, Norway, December 24, 2021. Picture taken December 24, 2021. REUTERS/Victoria Klesty/File Photo

The owner challenged the regulator to "step up and do something."

Another customer told the agency: "On Saturday, the suspension broke on our Tesla Model S, only luck that no serious accident happened."

Satren said the agency received reports from consumers who said the control arms on their Teslas broke soon after being inspected by a service center.

One owner told Reuters that he had brought in his 2017 Model S to have the rear right control arm checked in June 2022 because the rear left arm had failed in October 2021. A technician told him the part was fine and had no "corrosion damage, no cracks," according to invoices the owner provided to Reuters.

The part broke two weeks later, the owner said.

Since entering Norway in 2013, Tesla has dominated the market there, which has eagerly adopted electric vehicles. Norwegian Road Federation data shows 123,642 Tesla cars have been registered in Norway, with nearly 120,000 still on the roads.

The NPRA initially requested a meeting with Tesla officials in September 2022 after receiving the customer concerns. The agency had a final meeting with Tesla this month, according to Satren.

If the agency recommends or orders a recall, it could also report the issue to the European Union's Safety Gate, a database formerly known as RAPEX that acts as a rapid alert system for potentially dangerous non-food products. That would alert Tesla owners and EU member states to the potential for suspension failures, Satren said.

Tesla has recently modified the lower rear control arm, Satren said.

"Still, there are a lot of cars with these issues on the road," he said.

(Reporting by Marie Mannes; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Kevin Krolicki in Singapore; Editing by Ben Klayman, Brian Thevenot and Mark Potter)

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