Article: Musk blames glitches on early Model S cars; one report says Tesla

reliability improves
By Jerry Hirsch | October 21, 2015
Consumer
Reports
might
have
withdrawn its endorsement of Tesla
Motors' Model S electric sports sedan
because of reliability issues, but another
service says the cars dependability is
starting to improve.
TrueDelta.com, a private, membershipbased auto reliability tracking service,
said its data indicate that Model S
reliability has improved about 20% in
the past year.
Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, noted
on Twitter Wednesday afternoon that,
"Consumer Reports reliability survey
includes a lot of early production cars.
Already addressed in new cars."
But the Model S is still three to four
times less reliable than the typical new
vehicle, said Michael Karesh, who runs
the TrueDelta website.
Karesh suspects that Consumer Reports
has seen a recent increase in
complaints because of how it conducts
its research: asking owners to report
problems that they consider serious.
If an owner is very enthusiastic about
their car, or receives outstanding
service from their dealer, they are less
likely to report a problem on the CR
survey, Karesh said.
I think what has shifted is owner
expectations, not the number of flaws,
he said. The early adopters tend to be
very forgiving of glitches. As you
expand the consumer base you get
people who have less tolerance for
problems.
Owners do give Tesla high marks for
customer service for getting problems
fixed, Karesh said

Consumer Reports said Tuesday that the

Tesla Model S has worse-than-average
reliability
and
pulled
its
recommendation for the vehicle.
Consumer Reports said Model S owners
reported an array of detailed and
complicated
maladies
with
the
drivetrain, power equipment, charging
equipment and giant iPad-like center
console. They also complained about
body and sunroof squeaks, rattles and
leaks.
TrueDeltas analysis is based on owners
reporting specific problems they have
had fixed on their vehicles. But the
survey population is much smaller; it
has data from about 100 owners while
Consumer Reports received survey
responses from 1,400 owners.
J.D. Power, the automotive research
firm, also publishes reliability data, but
has not developed a big enough
population of vehicles yet to issue a
Tesla assessment, spokesman John Tews
said.
Teslas stock fell for a second day after
the Consumer Reports downgrade. It
closed down $2.94, or 1.4%, at $210.09
on Wednesday after falling 7% on
Tuesday.
The negative publicity could hurt Model
S sales, said Brian Johnson, an analyst
with Barclays Research.
Tesla has sold cars without any
publicity, and has instead relied on
'word of mouth' recommendations.
Issues with reliability may challenge the
appeal, Johnson wrote in a report to
investors Wednesday.

He said he expected the Palo Alto

electric car company to address the
reliability issues and noted that other
luxury cars also have failed to make the
Consumer Reports recommended list,
yet are still selling.

Source:

Hirseh, J. (2015, October 21). Musk

blames glitches on early Model
S cars; one report says Tesla
reliability improves. Retrieved
June 25, 2016, from
http://www.latimes.com/busines
s/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-reliabilityconsumer-reports-20151021story.html