The China “Recall”
Tesla was in the media spotlight last week, as Chinese authorities announced on May 12th that they had issued the recall of over 1 million Tesla vehicles for a safety hazard regarding the company’s regenerative braking system.
This has led to a debate over the terminology used - because this “recall” is more like a feature update, and is being handled with an over-the-air change to Tesla software - nothing worse than what happens to your favourite video game every couple of weeks.
Tesla’s Regenerative Braking system works by allowing the onboard computer to increase the resistance of the electric motor when the accelerator pedal is released. The computer’s algorithm decides how much resistance to use, and the car can be slowed without even using the wheel’s brakes - extending their lifetime, as well as using the energy from engine-braking to keep the charge up on the vehicle’s battery.
Tesla originally had two options - “low” and “normal” - with the “low” option relying more on the driver to brake manually as the engine resistance would be lower. Tesla began removing this option in late 2020 as it was less efficient than the “normal” setting - but had announced they were preparing to reintroduce the low setting back in April.
It just wasn’t quite soon enough to stop the recall it seems.
The recall notice is worded as you might expect - describing the problem as a safety issue, as drivers used to the previous system might misjudge the operation of their accelerator pedals. Everything seems normal here, China is using the recall system in a similar way to the US or Europe - it’s the legal framework they have for this sort of thing, so they use it.
Obviously Tesla critics have been having a field day - media outlets like Bloomberg have been reporting what is essentially a software update as a major recall - and not much more context is added to the conversation than that.
But if anyone thinks this is being done because China has something against Tesla, they only need to look at their recent history.
Not only has GigaShanghai been one of the most productive facilities in the company, but Tesla recently announced the construction of a second Megapack factory in the same area - with the Chinese government supporting the construction.
And on the same day as the recall announcement was made, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization announced their endorsement for Tesla’s Full Self Driving program in their province. If China was wary of Tesla’s safety record, they have a funny way of showing it.
A recall notice for over 1 million vehicles is extremely eye-catching, and even more so when you hear that the issue involves brake safety. But context is king, and not only will Tesla have this update pushed to all their vehicles in China soon - but none of the “recalled” cars will have to see the inside of a Tesla service center for this.