2020 Raven Front Drive Unit Failure

[Midnight Raven]

Took delivery on my beautiful 2020 Model S Long Range Plus last week in March and at about 3 weeks of driving (750 miles) it had a critical failure while traveling on California Freeway. 3 error notifications came up 1) Power braking assist reduced 2) Vehicle Shutting Down 3) Automatic Emergency Braking is disabled. I immediately lost all power and fortunately was able to navigate out of traffic and off road before my vehicle shutdown and would not move. Roadside assistance worked me through a reboot and the vehicle started and they advised me to drive to a service center immediately (was 8pm so waited until the next morning). While driving to the service center (35 miles away) the same shutdown occurred and I had to reboot.....Its been with the service center for over 2 weeks and they have decided to replace the front drive unit and the wiring harness; still don't have it back.

Is this just an off case of infant mortality on my drive unit and problem will be fixed with the new parts (they verified NEW and not refurbished drive unit)? This is my first EV and I was so stoked on the Tesla product in the first 750 miles I drove....But this huge problem (also after a frunk fuse issue in first 3 days) and honestly the nightmare ordeal of "trying" to deal with their service center brings concern to the brand. Anyone else have front drive failures on the new "raven" powertrain?

 

[kpeters000]

QA is an issue with Tesla, like all American auto companies.

That said, what a nightmare. I thought one of the major selling points of the dual motor vehicles was if one drive unit failed you would be able to continue moving with the other one - I'm seeing more and more reports of single drive unit failures putting the vehicle out of commission.

 

[SD Diver]

Ouch! I get my 2020 LR+ next week. Got a demo with 1100 miles - hopefully any infant mortality issues already occurred...

 

[2101Guy]

Pretty sure this is more of an isolated incident than a common occurrence (Drive unit failure of a brand new Tesla in under 1k miles).
However, as pointed out above, it IS an American made car. And American made cars do not have the same reputation (JD Powers, Consumer Reports) scoring in the Quality category as Toyota/Lexus, Honda, or even some german mfrs. Much of the cost of the cars is for R&D. I suspect that the budget for the team responsible for quality control (including the team that's accountable for ensuring consistency in things like panel gaps and alignment of rear trunk lids) and interior plastic quality/fitment, is very low.

 

[tonyparty]

Was this ever resolved? It sounds terrible. I’m taking delivery of a new MS in a few weeks and I’m planning on a road trip right away.

 

[croman]

My non Raven front motor died but I was able to continue driving with 8 scary alerts popping up. AP worked great too. After I reached my destination it refused to go into gear saying it failed some safety check on boot. Had to be flat bedded to service center.

 

[headcase]

Sounds like probably a one-off issue.

 

[dark cloud]

Looks like it was a one-off poster as well....

 

[PWlakewood]

Looks like it was a one-off poster as well....

Lol.....strange how they come on here and post a negative post then disappear.......hmmmmm...eh it didn't work as witnessed by how well the stock is doing and how many cars tesla keeps selling.

 

[PWlakewood]

Was this ever resolved? It sounds terrible. I’m taking delivery of a new MS in a few weeks and I’m planning on a road trip right away.

You will be fine. There are 99% positive experiences but you only hear the negative ones on forums. Enjoy your new car and have fun.

 

[AMPd]

You will be fine. There are 99% positive experiences but you only hear the negative ones on forums. Enjoy your new car and have fun.

Where are you getting the 99% number from?

 

[PWlakewood]

Where are you getting the 99% number from?

Thin air!

 

[r1200gs4ok]

Pretty sure this is more of an isolated incident than a common occurrence (Drive unit failure of a brand new Tesla in under 1k miles).
However, as pointed out above, it IS an American made car. And American made cars do not have the same reputation (JD Powers, Consumer Reports) scoring in the Quality category as Toyota/Lexus, Honda, or even some german mfrs. Much of the cost of the cars is for R&D. I suspect that the budget for the team responsible for quality control (including the team that's accountable for ensuring consistency in things like panel gaps and alignment of rear trunk lids) and interior plastic quality/fitment, is very low.

yep....most companies think of Quality as an added burden and expense....even with ISO certification these days its all smoke and mirrors...quality and reliability go hand in hand....quality is mostly first pass yields and deals with production and field failures...reliability is quality over time.......and right now, Tesla need more units in the field and a better process internally to determine reliability......MTTF and MTBF are significant data points in determining reliability....tesla's problem I think, is there dont have an adequate quality organizational implementation if any type of Six-Sigma programs.....Cost of quality , if determined with good data and upper level management buy-in, will be the best cost reduction tool they can have.....its too bad most American companies just talk quality