Elon Musk’s Tesla is recalling nearly 2 million US vehicles because the hood of the car could pop open without alerting the driver, the company said on Tuesday.
An unlatched hood could fully open and obstruct the driver’s view, raising the risk of a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Last month, the electric vehicle pioneer began rolling out an over-the-air software fix to detect an unlatched hood, the NTSA said.
The updated software detects an open hood and alerts drivers.
Tesla said it has three reports of the issue in the United States but no reports of crashes or injuries related to the recall.
The recall of 1.8 million vehicles includes certain 2021-2024 Model 3, Model S, Model X and 2020-2024 Model Y vehicles, the regulator said.
The vehicles’ hood latches were made in China, Tesla said.
The EV maker said it began investigating customer complaints about hood openings in Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China back in March.
It then launched a latch hardware recovery and inspection, Tesla said.
Tesla said it inspected hood latch assemblies in Europe and North America as well, though the regions had fewer hood latch mishaps.
Tesla shares dropped 4% to $222.62 on Tuesday.
The recall is Tesla’s biggest since December when it recalled 2.03 million U.S. vehicles — or nearly all of its cars on US roads at the time – to install new safeguards in its Autopilot system.
The EV maker recalled 2.03 million US vehicles in December – nearly all of its cars on the road in the country at the time – to revamp its Autopilot system with new safety features.
However, following reports of 20 crashes involving vehicles that had the new Autopilot update, NHTSA opened a probe, saying it had identified “several concerns” regarding the recall.
Tesla last week posted its worst quarterly profit margin in more than five years, underscoring the EV maker’s struggle to revive auto sales amid a slowdown in demand.
The company said its profit was weighed down by increased operating expenses targeted at new AI projects.
The EV maker has also been cutting jobs, laying off more than 10% of its workforce in the second quarter.
Tesla said it was on track to produce “new vehicles, including more affordable models” in the first half of 2025.
With Post wires
