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In light of all the defects with Tesla's new Model Y, here's a story about an early defect customers couldn't spot. Back in 2012 Tesla knew its battery had a design flaw that could lead to leaks, but it sold the car before it fixed it. https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-faulty-battery-cooling-systems-design-model-s-2012-2019-6
The problem was the cooling coil, also called the bandolier, that distributed coolant around the battery. It had a propensity to leak around the end fitting. An expert told us those leaks could dead the cars battery, or leave a flammable residue in the battery pack.
Employees described the part as "hanging by a thread" and said sometimes workers had to hammer the part to keep it together.
Business Insider went through internal documents that showed senior management got involved in this problem around September of 2012, but the part was still leaking on the assembly line months later.
Other automakers have dealt with problems like this differently. Back in 2017 BMW recalled 1 million cars for fire risk https://abcnews.go.com/US/bmw-recalls-million-vehicles-fire-risk/story?id=50922136
Now back to the Y. Customers are reporting major flaws like unattached back seats upon delivery. The question is, what are they not seeing? https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2020/06/24/jd-power-iqs-tesla-electric-vehicles-2020/3249943001/
Tesla is on its 4th car, but the design flaws on the Y (paint jobs etc) still look like the ones on the Model S. And we haven't uncovered everything that's going on with the Model S either. NHTSA is now looking into its touchscreens in cars from 2012-2015 https://www.boston25news.com/news/trending/nhtsa-launches-investigation-into-touch-screen-failures-tesla-model-s/E4UQHAUPEVFXXPWSJ2FDWS77UE/
