Responding to Consumer Reports’ criticism of the Model 3’s braking ability, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Monday that the company will “make sure all Model 3’s having amazing braking ability at no expense to customers.”
Consumer Reports said the Model 3’s stopping distance of 152 feet from 60 mph was far worse than any contemporary car they have tested. Musk called their results “strange” and inconsistent with other reviews. He suggested that performance may vary by vehicle and Consumer Reports may have had their hands on a dud.
The CR braking result is inconsistent with other reviewers, but might indicate that some Model 3’s have longer braking distances than others. If so, we will address this at our expense. First time we’ve seen anything like this.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2018
Musk later tweeted that braking tweaks can be made through a firmware update, which Tesla intends to ship in a few days. He said the company is dedicated to making the Model 3’s braking better than any comparable car.
Consumer Reports also said the Model 3’s stiff ride, unsupportive rear seat and excessive wind noise at highway speeds hurt its road-test score. Musk said the magazine was testing an early production car and those issues have since been addressed for cars coming off the assembly line today.
Also, Consumer Reports has an early production car. Model 3 now has improved ride comfort, lower wind noise & many other small improvements. Will request that they test current production.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2018
Tesla has acknowledged that the Model 3’s braking needs improvement. The good news is that the company can seemingly avoid an expensive recall and make those performance improvements via a software update.