Tesla has issued a recall on over 2,000 Cybertrucks due to a problem with their inverters, which can cause a loss of power.
This time, it’s a real physical recall that requires replacing the inverter.
When there’s a recall on Tesla vehicles, it is often fixed through over-the-air software updates that don’t require physically recalling the vehicle. It often angers Tesla fans that they are still called “recalls”.
But this isn’t one of those.
Today, Tesla issued a new recall notice on the Cybertruck due to its drive inverter abruptly failing to produce torque at times:
On affected vehicles, a fault in the drive inverter may cause it to stop producing torque. If the inverter stops producing torque, the driver loses the ability to apply torque to the vehicle using the accelerator pedal resulting in a loss of propulsion, which may increase the risk of a collision.
Tesla says that it received a customer complaint and began investigating the issue on August 5th.
The automaker wrote in the recall notice:
From August 5, 2024, through October 23, 2024, Tesla investigated the condition and analyzed field data to characterize the condition and identify vehicles that could potentially be impacted.
In October, Tesla said that it finally identified a specific population of Cybertruck with a higher drive inverter failure rate due to a MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) component, and a week later, it decided to issue a voluntary recall.
The automaker says that it has identified 5 warranty claims that could be related to this issue, but it is unaware of any related accident.
Tesla plans to start replacing the drive inverter in the affected vehicles next month:
Beginning on or shortly after December 9, 2024, at no charge to the customer, Tesla will replace the recalled drive inverter with a drive inverter equipped with a properly functioning MOSFET component.
Recalls have been one of our best ways to track Tesla’s Cybertruck production ramp, but unfortunately for our data, and fortunately for Cybertruck owners and Tesla, this specific recall affects only 2,431 Cybertrucks.