One in four 2020 Tesla Model 3 failed the Danish periodic inspection in 2024
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fdm.dk
Before the inspection I had the tail lights replaced twice, headlights replaced once and so many other things they'd find when I dropped it off for service. The boot hatch hydraulics was missing gaskets. TPMS was defective on delivery. Panel gaps of course. I had so much water in the first tail lights I could house a betta.
When Twitler started fighting the unions we sold that incident number on wheels and got a Volvo.
When it runs well, colleagues with it are happy, just charging is PITA even for those with houses. When it doesn't, Tesla service is by far the worst in whole Switzerland - they don't give you spare car while they work on it unlike all other normal garages, you have to get on your own ie to work or wherever you need to go. Of course, service center here is in middle of nowhere industrial zone. Folks leaving car there aren't happy to be polite.
How so?
For EVs in particular, you almost never have to use the brakes, and if you don't burnish your brakes from time to time, the rotors may end up rusting or worse, especially in northern counties that use road salt in winter.
Some other well known issues with Model 3s and Ys are poor headlight height calibration and upper/lower lateral links that fail way too early.
The thing with all of these issues is that most Tesla owners are told that they don't need to perform any maintenance, and while that may be the case, you should at least inspect your car from time to time to detect these issues. You can even do most of this on your own (brake burnishing each year, headlight calibration, and more).
In essence there is zero maintenance, but Hyundai makes it clear that annual inspection of everything is still important, and they will absolutely void your warranty if you skip such a "service" (inspection).
Which begs the question of what are you actually saving on with an EV - the expensive part of servicing a car is what you pay for labor and facilities - I'd argue more often than not, the actual parts and consumables are less than half the price you end up paying.
These days ICE cars can last ~100k miles with only a few minor maintenance items, but then you start hitting bigger ticket items like belts which again EV’s don’t have.
The EV does have the battery, and if they only lasted the length of the warranty (typically somewhere in the 100-150k mile range or 8 years, whichever comes first) then the cost of a battery replacement would swamp the savings from not having maintenance for things like clutches, transmissions, and engines.
But the data seems to be showing the EV batteries should last much longer, possibly longer than the rest of the car.
Personally though I think the mail attraction of EVs is not the possible savings on maintenance. It is the savings in energy cost per mile.
An EV would cost me about $0.025/mile when charged at home. Gas here is around $3.75/gallon so if I were driving one of the most efficient gas powered cars on the market, a Prius non-PHEV model, it would cost $0.067/mile. If I were driving a Honda Civic on the highway it would $0.094/mile, and in the city $0.117/mile. The Civic in the city is about what a Honda CR-V would be on the highway, and a CR-V in the city would be around $0.134/mile. A Ford F-150 on the highway is about 16% more than a CR-V in the city, and an F-150 in the city would be around $0.221/mile.
I mean recurring things like changing (passenger) air filters or brake fluid work about the same for a Tesla as it does for any other car?
(I don't worry so much about the warranty as I do about the resale value when I follow the schedule to the day for my car - I wouldn't want to buy a new-ish car that didn't go to the brand shop on the mandated intervals. Third party service or missed service visit is a huge red flag).
Brake fluid health check every 4 years (replace if necessary)*.
Cabin air filter replacement every 2 years.
Clean and lubricate brake calipers every year or 12,500 miles (20,000 km) if in an area where roads are salted during winter.
Rotate tires every 6,250 miles (10,000 km) or if tread depth difference is 2/32 in (1.5 mm) or greater, whichever comes first.Every Tesla owner I know tells me stories of the faults their car has had.
Even without Elon becoming a literal fascist, there's no way I was going to keep my X out of warranty, and I will never buy another Tesla.
My first car in 2007 was a 1975 peugeot, and although good looking, I basically had to pray "please don't break, please don't break" whenever I rode it somewhere. At some point I could not stand the mental anguish of it any more, and sold the thing and got a bicycle.
I cannot imagine what that feeling must be like when driving around in a $80k+ brand new car!
"The popular model has defects in particular in the brakes, lights, wheels and steering, according to inspection data" also does not create trust.
Mix in wetter conditions, and salted roads in winter, and you have a recipe for disaster - the components experience all of the weather, but none of the "cleaning" force of actual braking. Anecdotal evidence, every single electric car owner I personally know has complained about brake rust here in Latvia. Even those with small 50km range plug-in hybrids, when used mainly for daily commuting within electrical range.
I was also interested in what is meant by "steering" - here it seems that the main culprit is the weight of the batteries that are putting a lot of stress on the suspension system.
But the Tesla number would still be way too high.
Mostly because our number one car is not a truck and thus the competition had to react and build EVs to compete against Tesla.
Here are the numbers I found for 2020:
1 Renault Zoe: 99,261
2 Tesla Model 3: 85,713
3 Volkswagen ID 3: 56,118
4 Hyundai Kona: 47,796
5 Volkswagen eGolf: 33,650
6 Peugeot e208: 31,287
7 Kia eNiro: 31,019
8 Nissan Leaf: 30,916
9 Audi E-tron: 26,454
10 BMW i3: 23,113
So there are many more EV cars from other brands sold in 2020 than there were Tesla Model 3. The Tesla Model 3 represented at the very least less than 18.5% of cars as I only counted the top 10.
source: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/renault-zoe-ecli...
1 Tesla Model 3: 4,277
2 Volkswagen ID.3: 1,722
3 Hyundai Kona: 1,160
4 Kia Niro: 834
5 Renault Zoe: 704
6 Volkswagen Golf: 625
7 Nissan Leaf: 566
8 Audi E-tron: 493
9 Volkswagen Up!: 369
10 Porsche Taycan: 327
Source: https://www.bn.dk/bilmagasin/her-er-aarets-mest-solgte-biler...
So the Danish electric car market was somewhat diversified, but the Tesla brand was very strong back then. Still, you're absolutely correct that there were enough other electric cars sold back than that the comparison with the Model 3 is fair.
I mean, it wasn't even really reactive; the Leaf and Zoe came out at about the same time as the Tesla Model S, and weren't competing with it (they were well under half the price). They were quite old news by the time the Model 3 launched. The VW eGolf and BMW i3 also predate affordable (sub-100k) Tesla cars being available, at least in Europe.
About 40% of the electric cars sold in Denmark in (edit: september) 2020 were Teslas:
https://www.datawrapper.de/_/Q1H9W/ (the source for this is https://web.archive.org/web/20201119015250/https://www.bilim... only available on Archive.org anymore apparently)
(Weight is a factor but lots of electric cars are similar weight to lots of hybrid cars so it's something to keep in mind no matter what and not a particular reason to exclude hybrids.)
Which is not surprising, since Toyota now has almost three decades worth of experience with the Hybrid Synergy Drive system, and double that experience in building reliable cars in general.
There is a small note explaining that the Model 3 was introduced in Denmark in 2019 (MY 2020), and therefore 2024 is the first time the M3 has been called to the routine inspection (periodiske bilsyn), hence the specific focus on that model year for this article.
Probably due to a lot of the site holding Tesla stock.
But he is a terrible person, unstable, has many mental issues, pretty terrible father (which goes directly to terrible husband). Petty, childish, vengeful, has no issue lying to whole world with straight face.
At the end it doesn't matter what pros one have even up to this level, such set of cons overwhelms overall rating of given person very firmly into POS territory for me. Happy to see it unfolding now, and not decades after his death once cult of his worshippers slowly dissipates.
But I think he can still redeem himself, he has tremendous potential for good, maybe more than any other human being right now. I don't mean some Mars pipe dream, that feels rather like a great endeavor for 22nd century, but plenty of crap here back on Earth that needs some stronger push into better direction.
Why do people fall for that? He didn't start from 0, he literally had financial backing from his family.
Now is is carpetbagging the US government.
I think it's because the amount he got from his family was tiny in relation to his level of success, and the success being from providing real things people bought/used, and from the real things being things that had never been done before.
He was in the US illegally, didn’t have the qualifications he claimed to (no degree and he was never in a Stanford PHD program, never matriculated there and simply has a letter from a professor he claims is proof he was accepted as a candidate - which it absolutely is not). He failed out of 4 universities. He stole the idea for zip2. He likely sold gems illegally in both Canada and the US - there are huge gaps in his story.
All of this is fairly easy to check up on and people have done the work. https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-musk-fro...
He has cheated and failed up to an unprecedented degree. Fueled by a venture capital industry who realized that backing a conman selling dreams and lying is more reliable than backing an honest entrepreneur who could fail on merit.
He move to politics is the final act. The wheels have come off his cons, Tesla is failing and has no future evidenced by the total lack of a roadmap of new vehicles.
He intends to exit by making his illegal actions legal thanks to Trump.
It’s shameful how instrumental this community has been in propping up a man who history will remember as one of the greatest conmen of all time.
We’re way past that.
Take away is: Take your car for inspection before the warranty expires (which for Tesla is 4 years or 80.000km in Europe)
https://fussmattenprofi.com/en/these-cars-fail-the-tuev-repo...
Edit: Previously stated "at 12-13 years it was a little over 40%.", but this is incompatible with how long the Model 3 has been on the market, so assume this was a caption mistake by the site posting the stats.
2 – 3 years
Tesla Model 3 14.2%
Ford Mondeo 13.2%
Skoda Scala 11.8%
4 – 5 years
Tesla Model 3 19.7%
VW Sharan 17.7%
BMW 5er/6er 17.7%
6 – 7 years
Dacia Dokker 26.5%
Dacia Duster 24.3%
BMW 5er/6er 23.6%
8 – 9 years
Dacia Dokker 30,9%
Dacia Duster 29.7%
Dacia Sandero 28.6%
10 – 11 years
Dacia Logan 39.6%
Dacia Duster 34.1%
Renault Twingo 33.0%
12 – 13 years
Renault Twingo 41.5%
Dacia Logan 41.0%
Renault Clio 39.8%
Clearly the German car testing people simply do not know how to use sbt :)
The fact that the same problems are found in German inspections, it seems to confirm that it is not just a local issue. I will definitely start looking at other brands with similar models.
0: https://trafi2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/en/TraFi/TraFi__Katsastuk...
wonder how much weight plays a part, all the extra forces involved making the general structure deteriorate faster.
higher maintainance costs over gas vehicles has brutal implications for the fledgling electric aviation industry.
I'd guess most of the failures are due to things like headlights not being aligned properly.
headlights are fairly normal, but suspension and steering are dangerous failures and expensive repairs - higher weight jumps out to me as a likely root cause. especially when many of the others are hybrids with much smaller batteries and motor power.
(Remember when making comparisons, curb weight excludes fuel, which is typically around ~40kg (~85lb) for a full tank.)
The brakes are always noisy in winter now. I went for maintenance and it got better, but it got worse recently. The automatic judgment of the wipers is very inaccurate. Sometimes they start like a ghost and scare me. The reversing camera is always blurry in the snow in Norway. Other than that, there are not many complaints. I feel that the basic battery life and control are really great. It’s just that I think Tesla’s current model design seems difficult to achieve true fully automatic driving, especially in places like Norway where there is a lot of rain and snow. Because many cameras are blocked (even if you want to simulate human eyes, but the human eyes are in the car). I don’t even dare to cruise on autopilot, which can easily cause danger in rainy days.
And later on, servicing is notoriously shady and closed.
Afaik in most of the world car companies are required to offer the tools to third party service stations at a reasonable price. Then again if you control the full supply line you can make repairs near impossible so there is that. And also reasonable does not mean economicaly viable unfortunately.
I'd love to see it made a requirement to be affordable to end users but that is a bridge too far I guess. Most mechanical tools are affordable enough but electrical is still insanely expensive up to the point you are nearly required to buy Chinese copy/bootleg variants.
But in terms of engine and safety they are considered absolutely top notch and it is surprising that they are not doing well after only 4 years.
Cybertruck for example has been a complete mess.
The issue with these Teslas (and also other electrics) is that you almost never press the brake pedal. This becomes a problem in the inspection when the brakes are not performing as they should. One should keep special attention to these parts when driving an electric vehicle with one-pedal driving. You must use the brakes from time to time.
So it seems like the obvious thing to do would be to have the electronics system make sure to exercise the brakes for you -- e.g., once a week use the disc brakes even if regen braking is on; and possibly just put the brakes on when the car is stopped or stopping, even if it's not necessary.
I believe those issues are not related to the article in question though. The article mentions defects in cars, that given the segment and usage pattern, are to be expected imho. People need to learn how to maintain properly those cars (particularly suspension bushings, wheels and brakes). If you're not familiar with cars, I would recommend taking your car periodically (once a year) for an inspection by a professional.
But at the same time many other vehicle manufacturers have been making some less-than-ideal decisions with their EV offerings.
For example, Teslas have water-cooled batteries, while the (considerably cheaper) Nissan Leaf doesn't. So if your measure of quality is "will it keep going beyond 150,000 miles?" you'll find the vehicles with battery cooling do a lot better on that metric.
It would be more correct to compare number of defects found during the test and during ongoing maintenance.
We're not just talking about panel gaps anymore, problems with braking and steering are a huge risk for everyone on the road, not just the owners of these vehicles.
Lot of this probably comes from warranties and how usually cars have yearly maintenance where they should fix most issues.
See https://www.rdw.nl/particulier/voertuigen/landbouwvoertuig/a...
In Illinois, USA, there's outright no vehicle inspections AFAIK for electric vehicles whatsoever after the sale of the vehicle has completed. There's a yearly registration fee paid to the state, and the state has "emissions testing" for vehicles over 2y (model year) old, but EVs are explicitly exempt and so AFAIK the only inspections that would ever occur are in the event an owner has their vehicle serviced by a dealer.
I'm sure this adds to the terrible headlights, noise, and smoke I see coming from vehicles here.
I mean, it's one brand, so probably not.
Yes the service plan is not mandatory, but when your car comes with an 8 year warrantee, then it's best to actually go and have the services performed, as it might pay off in the long term. A car is basically an amalgamation of consumable items. _Everything_ eventually wears out. To not specify some form of maintenance plan or schedule is absolute madness.
On all the cars that I've owned, there was a comprehensive "inspect" section that details things like lights, suspension, brakes, seals, exhaust/muffler etc etc. Many of the "inspect"s will then be things like check the brake pad wear, check the fluid levels,
It's in the manufacturer's best interest to inspect every inch of a new car as part of that service plan, so that they can find and fix any small issues that might become big and expensive issues down the line. Faults on cars compound over time, and something as innocuous as a low coolant level today could result in a grenaded engine down the line if not caught and rectified early enough.
It actually does. The list of the checks is different and expanded by each new year and one can find it in the vehicle booklet.
In addition Tesla does not force mostly not needed so called regular maintenance in their repair shop to keep warranty. So that’s the result - cars without maintenance go for inspection. Who is to blame: manufacturer or the owner who does not care about the car for years.
My car also always brakes normally below 10kph which usually keeps the brakes clean anyway. I do a normal brake every now and then for my own comfort.
... Wait, are you expecting every owner of this mass-market car to _replace its suspension_, after _four years_? That's deranged, tbh; if it's that bad there should be a recall.
Huge NHS and government leases of tens of thousands of vehicles.
Same goes for the Jaguar iPace. You can get 90,000GBP of car for like 35,000 with all the gadgets.
1. The local secondary market isn't really all the interested in ex-lease electric cars,
2. the usual sales channel of shipping ex-lease cars to Eastern Europe doesn't exist, there's barely a market for electric cars there.
So yeah, now's probably a good time to get a second hand electric car, but if you're leasing it's only going to get more expensive.