Seatbelt defect shows that it wouldn’t provide full protection in a crash
Tesla has announced a full recall of every Model S sold since 2012 after it discovered a potential manufacturing defect in one of its cars.
One Model S in Europe was found to have a defective seat belt assembly. Tesla has stated that while this vehicle wasn’t involved in an accident, the seatbelt would not have provided full protection in the event of a crash.
As such, all 90,000 Model S cars are being recalled. Tesla has never been a mass-market manufacturer, especially not in the UK where there are around 1,000 on the roads.
The luxury full-electric saloon is currently priced from £57,335 to £89,435 for the P85D range topper.
The issue was highlighted by a Tesla owner in Europe earlier in November, leading to the carmaker inspecting 3,000 vehicles worldwide and its assembly process to identify where the problem lied before contacting owners.
Tesla said there have been no accidents linked to this issue but is recalling the cars out of an ‘abundance of caution’.
In a statement, the company said: “Even though we have since inspected the seat belts in over 3,000 vehicles spanning the entire range of Model S production and found no issues.
“We have decided to conduct a voluntary recall as a proactive and precautionary measure to inspect all front Model S seat belts and make absolutely sure that they are properly connected.” He added that there are no concerns regarding seat belts in the rear of Model S.
The all-electric Model S is a large executive lift back that competes with conventional cars from BMW and Mercedes.
On a full charge, the Model S can cover 250 miles and the latest P85D model has an astonishing 0-62mph time of just 2.8 seconds — the same as an £866,000 McLaren P1 supercar.
News that safety features could be defective on their cars could damage the reputation of the startup, after questions over reliability were raised earlier in the year.
