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Tesla EVs Delayed Weeks Due To Missing Charging Port Part.
Tesla has been plagued with several delays, and the latest is related to missing charging port ECUs. Customers are complaining about long wait times.
Tesla customers are seeing delays in receiving their electric vehicles due to a missing part. The EV company has already been seeing delays due to production issues. Earlier this month, Elon Musk gave a video presentation at the Financial Times Future of the Car summit. He said that demands for Tesla cars were so high he may have to limit or pause orders. Wait times for orders were already bad before the supply chain issues kicked in, and then demand grew and made things worse.
Tesla is also expecting these delays to continue through 2022. According to its earnings report, the company had a good first quarter despite supply chain issues. However, its factories haven’t been running at full capacity for a while now, so it isn’t expecting production to increase significantly. Tesla built 305,407 EVs in quarter one of 2022, but it produced 433 more in the fourth quarter of 2021. While this isn’t a significant difference, it does show that it is having issues increasing production. While the chip and GPU shortage seems to be in recovery, supply chain issues are still plaguing the industry.
The latest delay for Tesla seems to be related to the missing charging port electric control unit (ECU). Several customers have complained on the Tesla Motors Club forum about their vehicles being ready except for the missing part. Forum member waitingforpart has been waiting over a month for their EV. According to their post, their Model 3 Plaid was manufactured on April 19, with VIN assigned on April 28. They also noted that while their vehicle waits for the missing part, it’s sitting outside, exposed to the elements instead of being covered. The customer is understandably upset and isn’t getting any answers when they’ve called customer service. In addition, there is no time frame for when the ECU comes in. The customer has also started making payments on their vehicle.
Is There An ECU Shortage?
Another forum member, _tb_, suspects there might be an ECU shortage. Their Model 3 Plaid had to wait ten to 14 days for the charging port. According to them, “some dealers received more charge port ECUs than they needed, and some received none.” They eventually got their part when it was FedEx’d from another dealer. While Tesla has not said anything about these delays, this is an issue given the number of members posting on the forum. It’s just unclear how big of a problem it is.
A few members also noted their worry about their new EVs sitting for a long time without being charged. While an electric vehicle can go without activity for longer than a combustion car, it shouldn’t be sitting without charging for more than 21 days. It should be noted that if they are going to be sitting for a prolonged amount of time, the cars should be charged between 40 and 60 percent. As a result, these customers are concerned about what condition their car’s batteries will be in when they finally get their vehicles delivered. If they need new batteries, that will add to the wait time.
The biggest issue here is customer satisfaction. Many forum members noted that they would have liked to know the extent of delays before purchasing their vehicle. As the delays pile up, this could deter people from buying a Tesla. The company could lose current customers that choose to buy their next EV from another brand. Since it doesn’t expect supply chain issues to ease this year, it will have to work on its customer service to keep consumers happy while waiting for their vehicles.
Source: Tesla Motors Club
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