Tesla’s rocketing share price has catapulted boss Elon Musk to number two on the world’s richest list, but it seems something else about Tesla is flying high.
The California electric car company has been forced to recall 9000 of its £82k Model X SUVs over fears parts of the car’s roof could detach at speed.
Tesla says the problem relates to two pieces of cosmetic trim, one just behind the windscreen, and another in the centre of the roof between the rear falcon doors, which you can see in the picture below.
Both parts are attached to the Model X’s roof using urethane adhesive, but if there’s not enough primer between the trim and the urethane, the adhesive could weaken and the trim could potentially part company with the car.
The US NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) says it doesn’t know of any accidents caused by the defect but Tesla has recalled 9136 Model Xs built between September 2015 and July 2016 as a precaution.
The Model X landed in UK showrooms in late 2016 but it’s currently unclear whether the earliest cars sold in the Britain are affected. If they are, Telsa will contact owners and carry out tests to see how well stuck-down the trim is. If the adhesive seems weak, primer will be applied to the facings to unsure nothing falls off the roof.
And it’s worth underlining that we’re talking here about two pieces of trim potentially coming adrift, not the roof itself detaching – though that’s exactly what happened to a Model Y owner in California.
Nathaniel Galicia Chien was driving down Interstate 580 with his parents in their brand-new Tesla Model Y in October when he began to hear wind noise around the roof.
‘I thought a window was open,’ Chien told The Verge, ‘but half a minute later the entire glass top of the roof just flew off in the wind.’
Chien returned the car to the dealership, which inspected the roof and decided that either the roof seal was faulty, or the car had somehow been assembled without a roof seal.
Keyword: Tesla recalls 9000 Model X SUVs over fears roof trim could fly off