This recall has only been issued in for American Tesla EVs thus far, and is to be fixed through an OTA update.
Tesla has recently announced a recall for 1.85 million vehicles in the United States, due to risk of software failure to detect an unlatched bonnet. The recall is to be the EV automaker’s biggest since December, when it recalled 2.03 million cars in the US to install new safeguards in its Autopilot system.
The cause for this recall is due to the unlatched bonnet could be capable of fully open when the vehicle is in motion, with it then potentially obstructing the driver’s view and increasing the likelihood of a crash. Tesla has stated that the vehicles affected by this recall were equipped with a bonnet latch produced in China by Magna Closures Co Ltd.
The 1,849,638 EVs affected by this recall in North America include the Model 3, Model S, Model X built between 2020 and 2024, in addition to Model Ys built between 2020 and 2024. Tesla yet to announce recalls for this issue in any other markets thus far.
Handily here, Tesla has nevertheless stated this recall will purely be completed through an over-the-air software update, which the company has incidentally already rolled out since the last weeks of June. The updated software will detect an open bonnet and alerts drivers.
The automaker said it began investigating customer complaints of unprompted bonnet opening instances in certain Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China in March, and initiated a latch hardware recovery and in-service vehicle inspection. Tesla said it has three reports of the issue in the United States but no reports of crashes or injuries related to the recall.
While fewer such events occurred in Europe and North America, Tesla said it began engineering studies in the regions to inspect bonnet latch assemblies last month and decided to issue a recall earlier this month. The recall notice it had since published further adds that only 1% of the vehicles involved in the recall are actually likely to have the defect.
This is incidentally to not be the first time Tesla had issues with the bonnet latches on their cars, as it has previously announced a recall for the similar matter back in 2021. The misalignment of its bonnet latches had caused a recall targeted at about 119,000 Model S luxury sedans, with these affected cars requiring the reassembly of their secondary latches.
