Tesla Model S

Tesla clarifies its position on Model S suspension failure

Published

9 years ago

June 10, 2016

Yesterday, we reported a story about a Tesla Model S owner who said his left front suspension failed while driving at slow speed on a dirt road. The owner, who identified himself as gpcordaro on TMC, claimed that Tesla offered to split the cost of repair with him, but only if he signed a non-disclosure agreement and agreed not to contact federal authorities. His car was out of factory warranty at the time of the incident.

Bryan Thomas, a spokesman for the U.S. National Highway Safety Administration said the agency is “examining the potential suspension issue on the Tesla Model S, and is seeking additional information from vehicle owners and the company.” Yesterday, NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind told the press that his agency is in “data collection mode.”

“Part of what we have to figure out is whether or not (non disclosure agreements) might have impeded people making (complaints),” Rosekind said. He also said his agency has been in touch with Tesla seeking information. “Our folks were on this right away.”

Now, Tesla has responded. In a lengthy blog post, it called the customer’s allegations about having to sign a non-disclosure agreement “preposterous.” It says it occasionally asks customers to sign what it calls a Goodwill Agreement. This occurs when the company agrees to provide services or repairs over and above those required by its warranty.

A lawyer will tell you that in some jurisdictions, “evidence of repair” can be equated with knowledge of a defect. That can have unfortunate legal consequences for any company if the matter winds up in court. The Goodwill Agreement is a written statement that says the owner will not use the fact that Tesla stepped up to keep a customer happy against it later in legal proceedings.

“It is deeply ironic that the only customer who apparently believes that this document prevents him from talking to NHTSA is also the same one who talked to NHTSA. If our agreement was meant to prevent that, it obviously wasn’t very good,” Tesla wrote in its response.

The owner told the press that after NHTSA examined the broken suspension piece, it told him that the ball joints in his Model S were of poor quality and failed prematurely. Tesla strongly disputes that, citing its 5 star crash rating and exhaustive durability testing. It did say the ball joint on this particular car was heavily rusted in a way that it has not seen on any other of its vehicles. Then the Tesla blog post demonstrated how to say harsh things in the kindest possible way.

“Finally, it is worth noting that the blogger who fabricated this issue, which then caused negative and incorrect news to be written about Tesla by reputable institutions, is Edward Niedermayer. This is the same gentle soul who previously wrote a blog titled “Tesla Death Watch,” which starting on May 19, 2008 was counting the days until Tesla’s death. It has now been 2,944 days. We just checked our pulse and, much to his chagrin, appear to be alive. It is probably wise to take Mr. Niedermayer’s words with at least a small grain of salt.

“We don’t know if Mr. Niedermayer’s motivation is simply to set a world record for axe-grinding or whether he or his associates have something financial to gain by negatively affecting Tesla’s stock price, but it is important to highlight that there are several billion dollars in short sale bets against Tesla. This means that there is a strong financial incentive to greatly amplify minor issues and to create false issues from whole cloth.

The post closed with a simple statement that truly captures the corporate ethics of Tesla Motors. “That said, sometimes Tesla does make genuine mistakes. We are not and have never claimed to be perfect. However, we strongly believe in trying to do the right thing and, when we fall short, taking immediate corrective action.”

That attitude is a big part of the reason why nearly 400,000 people worldwide have placed a reservation for the upcoming Tesla Model 3.

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Tesla makes a decision on the future of its flagship Model S and Model X

Published

2 weeks ago

February 24, 2025

Joey Klender

Tesla has made a decision regarding the future of its flagship vehicles, the Model S and Model X, which both have been sticking around for “sentimental reasons” and have no true alignment with the company’s future goals of growth.

The Model S and Model X were Tesla’s first two vehicles to be offered to the public.

They were essentially fundraisers for future, mass-market, affordable models, according to Elon Musk’s “Tesla Master Plan,” but their ability to still attract some buyers thanks to the performance of the Model S or the space of the Model X keeps them lingering.

But speculation regarding the vehicles’ true place in the expanding Tesla lineup has been persistent. With the vehicles, which have been grouped in with the Cybertruck in its quarterly delivery releases, only amounting to 23,000 deliveries in Q4, there are questions as to whether it is still worth keeping them around.

Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, said on the Ride the Lightning podcast yesterday that there are currently no plans to eliminate the Model S and Model X from the lineup.

When asked about whether there were plans for the Model S and Model X moving forward, Moravy replied:

“Just give it a minute. We’ll get there. The upgrade a couple of years ago was bigger than most people thought in terms of architecture and structure of the car got a lot better, too. But, we’ll give it some love later this year and make sure it gets a little bit…you know, with the stuff we’ve been putting in 3 and Y. Obviously, with 3 and Y, the higher volume stuff, you’ve gotta focus there.”

He confirmed that the two vehicles were not going anywhere “anytime soon.”

? When @DMC_Ryan asked Lars Moravy if Model S and Model X have some updates coming, the Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering said:
“Just give it a minute. We’ll get there.”
Sounds like another refresh is coming, and the flagships aren’t going anywhere. pic.twitter.com/Y6MPp47MJC
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— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) February 23, 2025

Moravy said the Model S and Model X are great consider when you consider autonomy and the robotaxi use: the Model S due to its overall quality and the Model X because of its interior space.

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Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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Tesla is offering a crazy Supercharging incentive on its two ‘sentimental’ vehicles

Published

4 weeks ago

February 8, 2025

Joey Klender

Credit: Tesla

Tesla is offering a crazy Supercharging incentive for those who choose to buy two vehicles that CEO Elon Musk said the company is keeping around for “sentimental reasons” a few years ago.

Tesla Supercharging incentives are pretty hard to come by, and it is hard to tell when the company is going to offer them. Usually, they are used to move vehicles and nudge consumers toward purchasing one model over another.

However, Tesla sometimes offers Supercharging incentives at random times for no real reason other than luck of the draw.

However, Tesla is using the Supercharging incentive to help move two of the cars that are low-volume sellers, but are kept around for what Musk called “sentimental reasons” in 2019.

Tesla is offering free Supercharging for those who choose to purchase or lease a new Model S or Model X.

The offer is good for the life of your ownership or lease. Tesla talks more about the terms on its website:

“Customers who purchase or lease a new Model X (or Model S) are eligible for free Supercharging during your ownership of the vehicle. Offer is tied to your Tesla Account and cannot be transferred to another vehicle, person or order, even in the case of ownership transfer. Used vehicles, business orders and vehicles used for commercial purposes (like taxi, rideshare and delivery services) are excluded from this promotion. You are still responsible for Supercharger fees, like idle and congestion fees, when applicable.”

This is a great promotion to attempt and move some of Tesla’s vehicles, especially two that the company only keeps around because they are two of the company’s foundational, flagship cars.

Musk said in 2019:

“I mean, they’re very expensive, made in low volume. To be totally frank, we’re continuing to make them more for sentimental reasons than anything else. They’re really of minor importance to the future.”

Tesla has not released a major update to the Model S or Model X in a few years. In 2022, it launched the Plaid configuration, but it has not received any true modifications since then, leading some to believe they could be sunsetted in the future.

For now, it seems they will be sticking around, but Tesla is still adjusting the prices and incentives of the two vehicles. Earlier this week, Tesla pushed the Model X’s price in the U.S. up by $5,000.

Need accessories for your Tesla? Check out the Teslarati Marketplace:

Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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Tesla Cybertruck recall shows healthy production ramp, but Model S and X are suffering

Published

5 months ago

October 3, 2024

Joey Klender

Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | YouTube

This morning’s reports of a Tesla Cybertruck recall only went to shed more light on how the production ramp of the pickup is going.

With delivery figures for the third quarter revealed yesterday, it also shows a grim reality for the Model S and Model X, two vehicles that have become more of a novelty in Tesla’s lineup as the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck have truly taken charge.

The NHTSA documents released this morning show the Cybertruck is being recalled for a delayed rearview image, which will be resolved with an Over-the-Air update.

Tesla addresses Cybertruck rearview camera “recall” with free software update

However, they also show that 27,185 units are potentially impacted by the issue, giving us a rough guess of how many Cybertrucks have been produced thus far.

The breakdown seems to show that from the last Cybertruck recall in June, when 11,688 units were potentially impacted, we have seen roughly 15,497 additional pickups make their way to customers.

In a perfect world, that would mean 910 Cybertruck are delivered every week, or 130 per day, and since the first recall occurred with three weeks left in June and in Q2, we can subtract 2,730 Cybertrucks from the 15,497 that have been delivered since then.

We know that as of now there are 27,185 Cybertrucks delivered, and as of June 6, there were 11,688 Cybertrucks delivered.
That means 15,497 were delivered between June 6 and today (maybe yesterday?), which is about 910 per week or 130 per day.
EDIT: since this recall includes…
— ⚙️ Mike, cyberowners.com (@TeslaTruckClub) October 3, 2024
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These figures are very rough estimates. That would leave 13,157 Cybertrucks delivered in Q3, roughly.

Tesla said 22,915 Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck were delivered in Q3. This would leave just 9,758 Model S and Model X to be delivered, less than 10,000 units for an entire quarter, if the Cybertruck delivery figures are close to accurate.

“We’re Continuing to Make Them for Sentimental Reasons”

Elon Musk said during the Q3 2019 Earnings Call that the Model S and Model X are truly vehicles that are “niche products,” and they knew it wouldn’t take the company to a mass-market status:

Tesla’s Q1 ’21 Deliveries prove Elon Musk was right about the Model S and X in 2019

Interestingly, the vehicles have had their moments through the past few years. In Q4 2023, the Model S and Model X saw their highest delivery count in five years, accounting for 22,969 deliveries that quarter.

Now, they’re around the 10,000 mark.

It will be interesting to see what Tesla’s plans are for these two cars, especially as Robotaxi unveiling is scheduled for next week, and there could be the potential for more vehicles to be released in the coming years with the next-gen platform taking focus.

It would be a real gut punch to the long-time Tesla fans who saw the Model S and Model X launch the company into the Model 3. But all good things must come to an end.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.