Tesla Issues Recall for Faulty Heat Pumps, Loss of Heating in Cold Weather
consumerreports.org
consumerreports.org
The number of Tesla recalls continues to increase. Fortunately I didn't buy the Tesla hype.
- Tesla to recall nearly 54,000 vehicles that may disobey stop signs | Reuters (https://web.archive.org/web/20220201161722/https://www.reute...)
- Tesla recalls 817,000 vehicles due to seat belt alert issue - CNN (https://web.archive.org/web/20220206073923/https://www.cnn.c...)
- Tesla recalls Model S vehicles with in-your-face hoods | MotorSafety.org (https://web.archive.org/web/20220115192423/https://www.motor...)
There are definitely more recalls in the past 12 months, but these are the most recent ones that I have saved.
Also at least 1 anecdotal report of poor QA:
- The Tesla Model 3 Delivered Without Brake Pads Was 'Normal' (https://web.archive.org/web/20220123010452/https://www.motor...)
As it is, this recent trend reflects the fact that regulators have demanded that Tesla follow standard recall procedures, even if they can fix it via software without laying hands on the vehicle.
I want them to succeed, but they increasingly make it hard to believe that will be possible.
I had to keep shelter in a telephone booth just to survive waiting for a train at -14,8F (-26°C) in Weimar, Germany -- called a taxi. That's a worst-case, not the "every decent winter in Europe" 14°F
My house uses an electric heat pump but has an "emergency heat" function that falls back to resistive heat at much higher cost.
For example here’s one of the units I run at my home: https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/56518. It has a COP (coefficient of performance) ranging from around 4 at higher ambient temperatures, down to 1.8 at 5f. So it’s just over half the electricity input per watt of heat output for me to run my heat pump at 5f.
There are newer units and units designed to run in cold environments that achiever much higher COP below freezing than my example above.