Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and/or follow us on Google News! A new study from the German Automobile Club (ADAC) tells us what we’ve always suspected would be the case — electric cars ... [continued]
I feel like using teslas as the pic for this was somewhat misguided - they regularly rank as one of the least reliable cars going.
It depends on the segment and time range and market. MotorEasy conducted a survey in 2024 in the U.K. with 29,967 respondents. The Tesla Model Y was the 9th (equal) most reliable car. However Teslas tend to fare poorly in the Consumer Reports survey in the U.S. I suspect one of the reasons for the discrepancy between this market and the U.S. is that the U.K. received Tesla shipments a lot later for new models - years, in fact. This gave Tesla time to iron out first-model issues. Another is potentially the location of manufacture. Most Teslas sold in the U.K. come from China and Germany. Most Teslas sold in the U.S. come from Fremont, California. There were widespread reports of strange manufacturing practises at the Fremont plan during the covid outbreak, like spray-painting cars in makeshift tents.
Interestingly, MotorEasy found that gas and hybrids were the most reliable. Diesel were the least reliable.
A lot of what people have heard about being one of the least reliable cars is from the mandatory inspections in Germany.
If there’s any rust on your brakes, the car fails the inspection. Teslas have some pretty aggressive and good regen/one pedal driving so people don’t use the brakes often. You’re supposed to use the brakes with some heavy braking to help clear it over time. People don’t do this, they take the car in, and it fails since it has some rust on it. Just using the brakes would clear it though.
The earlier Model 3 also had a problem with the front suspension which could cause a fail, there’s a service bulletin on that one.
The Model S also had some air suspension issues, but from my understanding, who doesn’t have air suspension issues (but I might be wrong)
Take those things, add on all the other small quantity issues, and it was ranked one of if not the worst vehicle the 1st year they were coming up to the age inspections were required.
It depends on the segment and time range and market. MotorEasy conducted a survey in 2024 in the U.K. with 29,967 respondents. The Tesla Model Y was the 9th (equal) most reliable car. However Teslas tend to fare poorly in the Consumer Reports survey in the U.S. I suspect one of the reasons for the discrepancy between this market and the U.S. is that the U.K. received Tesla shipments a lot later for new models - years, in fact. This gave Tesla time to iron out first-model issues. Another is potentially the location of manufacture. Most Teslas sold in the U.K. come from China and Germany. Most Teslas sold in the U.S. come from Fremont, California. There were widespread reports of strange manufacturing practises at the Fremont plan during the covid outbreak, like spray-painting cars in makeshift tents.
Interestingly, MotorEasy found that gas and hybrids were the most reliable. Diesel were the least reliable.
A lot of what people have heard about being one of the least reliable cars is from the mandatory inspections in Germany.
If there’s any rust on your brakes, the car fails the inspection. Teslas have some pretty aggressive and good regen/one pedal driving so people don’t use the brakes often. You’re supposed to use the brakes with some heavy braking to help clear it over time. People don’t do this, they take the car in, and it fails since it has some rust on it. Just using the brakes would clear it though.
The earlier Model 3 also had a problem with the front suspension which could cause a fail, there’s a service bulletin on that one.
The Model S also had some air suspension issues, but from my understanding, who doesn’t have air suspension issues (but I might be wrong)
Take those things, add on all the other small quantity issues, and it was ranked one of if not the worst vehicle the 1st year they were coming up to the age inspections were required.