More than 1.6 million Tesla cars recalled in China

Due to problems with the control software and door locking systems, Tesla is forced to recall several than 1.6 million cars. The error is present on models S, X, 3 and Y and 7538 imported vehicles.

Since the problem is of a software nature, owners will not need to take their electric horse to a salon or service. Tesla is said to have fixed the bug via a remote software update (OTR). The patch schedule is not yet known.

It is not the first time that Tesla has had to solve a software conundrum for its vehicles. Last month, they had to recall 2 million cars in the US that had problems with the autopilot software. In May last year, the Chinese owners again had problems with the acceleration and braking system.

In 2022, they had to recall 128,000 vehicles due to problems with the rear motor inverter.

Although the error will be solved remotely, the Chinese regulator SAMR (State Administration for Market Regulation) still marked the situation as a recall.

Tesla will issue an over-the-air software update to a total of 1,610,105 vehicles, including imported Model S and X models and Chinese-made Model 3 and Y models built between 2014 and 2023, SAMR said.

The fix will fix problems with the auto-guidance function and consequently reduce the chance of an accident.

"For vehicles within the scope of this recall, when the automatic steering function is turned on, the driver may incorrectly use the combined assisted driving function of the second level, which increases the risk of vehicle damage and endangers safety," explained the Chinese regulator.

Separately, Tesla will also upgrade the software for 7,538 Model S and X cars to fix an issue with doors that can unlock at the time of sale.

Frequent software problems are not good news for the American giant. It was recently overtaken by the Chinese manufacturer BYD in terms of sales figures, so Tesla will have to eliminate the mentioned mistakes as soon as possible and make sure that such mistakes do not occur in the future.

China is a very important market for Tesla, where until now they have diligently recruited new owners with subsidies. Tesla also built the first gigafactory in Ånghaj to produce 947,000 cars in 2023.

China also wants the majority of its fleet to be electric by 2035, and it is understandably relying on Tesla among others.