‘Widespread’ faults claimed in Tesla and BMW cars

SOME Tesla, BMW and Land Rover models should be recalled, Which? said, as it claimed it had discovered “widespread” vehicle faults.

A survey of 47,013 car owners by the consumer group found what it called “a weakness in the manufacturing process” of seven popular models and it said these should be “addressed” immediately.

The faults included battery issues in some Nissans, problems with the door handles in one Tesla model and with the on-board computer software in some Range Rovers.

However, some of the manufacturers said the findings relating to specific models were based on a handful of vehicles and were not representative.

Nissan said it was aware of a problem with batteries in some of its models and was in the process of contacting 35,000 customers to offer them free upgrades.

Harry Rose, editor of Which? magazine, said owners would have to foot the bill for repairs after their cars were out of warranty and that it was “completely unacceptable” for manufacturers not to fix the faults.

Nissan pointed out that the sample sizes were very small.

However, a spokesman said it was aware of “some incidences of battery failure on older models”, and the company had taken steps to address the issue.

Land Rover said it “takes product quality seriously” and that it was introducing software to allow remote updates to vehicles’ systems.

A spokesman said that the sample size for the study was 0.12 per cent of Velar owners and 0.22 per cent of Sport owners. He added: “We don’t believe this is representative of the vast majority of satisfied customers.”

BMW said its own analysis had shown “no unusual patterns” in warranty claims about the issue Which? raised.

Tesla said it reviewed every car before it left the factory and warranties covered repairs to door handles for up to four years.