Consumer Reports pulled its “recommended” rating for the Tesla Model S and that caused the company’s share price to plummet. It reported a “worse-than-average overall problem rate” and cautioned consumers that these issues may only exacerbate as the car gets older. Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter today so that he could set the record straight about the Consumer Reports’ downgrade.
He explains that this particular survey involved many early production cars and most of the issues mentioned in the subsequent report have already been fixed in newer models. “Consumer Reports reliability survey includes a lot of early production cars. Already addressed in new cars,” he tweeted.
This survey from Consumer Reports had responses from 1,400 Model S owners in the United States, some of them had reported problems with the charging equipment, motor, drivetrain, the sunroof and even the giant center console inside the Tesla Model S.
Musk has clarified that most of the issues highlighted in the survey have already been taken care of in newer production cars. The report also pointed out on its own that many of the issues are covered under Tesla warranties which means even if an issue pops up owners rarely have to pay to get it fixed.
Musk also tweeted that Tesla gets the top rating of any company in service, adding that Consumer Reports says that 97 percent of owners expect that their next car is going to be a Tesla, this is based on the acid test.