Automotive safety regulators encourage Tesla to recall about 158,000 vehicles

Some automotive safety recalls reach millions of vehicles. Although modest in historical numbers, the move would represent a relatively large recall for Tesla, which has far fewer cars on the road than some rivals. The Silicon Valley automaker delivered nearly 500,000 vehicles globally last year, about 205,600 of them in the United States, according to market research firm Motor Intelligence. Tesla does not divide its sales by region.

Tesla does not need to recall the vehicles, although NHTSA said in the letter that if the automaker does not take action, it must provide an explanation for its decision. The agency can then escalate the matter to a public hearing and eventually seek to force a recall in the courts.

Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at Guidehouse Insights, said the recall request was significant and could cost $ 300 million to $ 500 million to handle.

Tesla in 2018 recalled 123,000 Model S cars when it discovered that cold weather could corrode some bolts, potentially leading to power steering failures.

Tesla’s shares have soared in recent months, driven by increasing investor confidence in Chief Executive Elon Musk’s view of the mass appeal of electric cars. Tesla last year became the world’s largest automaker by market capitalization and this month became America’s fifth largest public company. The company’s stock rose more than 700% last year.

The most recent NHTSA recommendation would affect Model S cars built between 2012 and 2018 and Model X SUVs made from 2016 to 2018, the agency said.

Regulators say the car’s touchscreen, known as the media control unit, can fail when the memory chip runs out of storage capacity. This can happen over time, NHTSA said, as drivers start the vehicle. It would take about five to six years on average for the failure to occur, the regulator determined.

When the touchscreen fails, it affects vehicle functions, such as defrosting, the driver assistance system and the direction indicator functionality, NHTSA said.

The regulatory agency said Tesla tried to rectify the problem through air updates, but it believes efforts have been insufficient. As a matter of federal law, vehicle manufacturers are required to carry out recalls to correct safety-related defects, the agency said.

The recall order for about 158,000 cars for a problem related to its computer chips comes at a time when the auto industry is struggling with a widespread shortage of semiconductors that has been disrupting production worldwide.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Musk emphasized Tesla’s focus on safety and complained in the past that the company receives undue attention for incidents that other automakers also face.

In their letter to Tesla, federal regulators said other manufacturers have issued recalls for problems similar to those caused by defective touch screens.

As part of the agency’s investigation, NHTSA said Tesla provided data showing that about 12,600 of its cars had already experienced the problem, with models made between 2012 and 2015 having a failure rate of around 15%. The company also confirmed to the regulator that all touch screens would eventually fail, the letter said.

Write to Rebecca Elliott at [email protected] and Ben Foldy at [email protected]