Tesla tweaks Model S to stave off recall
WASHINGTON — Tesla Motors Inc., under U.S. scrutiny for vehicle-fire risk, is seeking to head off a months-long investigation that could lead to expensive upgrades and longer-term damage to the image of electric cars.
Chief executive Elon Musk said Tuesday on his blog that the company made a software adjustment to its Model S sedan so it won’t ride as low to the ground at highway speed, reducing the risk of battery packs being punctured and catching fire after hitting objects in the road. His remarks preceded a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statement that it would investigate the Model S over two such fires.
Should regulators reject the software fix, they may order Tesla to install a thicker barrier of aluminum or a stronger metal in the Model S’s undercarriage. That would be much more costly and undermine Tesla’s claim to sell the safest U.S. car, one priced from $70,000 to more than $100,000.
“With these high-technology vehicles, a recall is the particularly dreaded end game,” said Bill Visnic, senior editor at Edmunds.com, an auto-information website. “Musk understands that.”
The U.S. investigators who will decide whether to allow Musk to head off a recall on his terms are with the same agency that rebuked the company two months ago for exaggerating the Model S’s govern- ment crash-test results.
Musk on Tuesday framed the safety questions surrounding the Model S as a threat to “delay the advent of sustainable transport and increase the risk of global climate change, with potentially disastrous consequences worldwide.”
Avoiding a recall is more than a matter of semantics. If a consumer searches NHTSA’s database, it won’t find any listings for a 2011 recall of
General Motors Co. Chevrolet Volt, since GM acted before one was requested.
After a Volt caught fire on a storage lot following a government crash test, GM offered to better shield the lithium-ion batteries from puncture and exchange the cars if owners didn’t want them. The company’s top executive started driving a Volt. Regulators agreed the repairs were sufficient and ended their probe.
Tesla’s software upgrade is “very benign” in terms of cost and production disruption, and probably will be acceptable to NHTSA, Rod Lache, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said in a note Tuesday.