Swedish regulator investigates Tesla suspension failures

OSLO — Sweden’s Transport Agency said on Friday it is investigating suspension failures in Tesla cars along with a similar probe by neighboring Norway’s traffic safety regulator.

“We can … confirm that investigative work is also underway with us,” the Swedish agency said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Finnish transport and communications agency told Reuters it had not been contacted about faulty suspension failures.

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) on Thursday said it started questioning Tesla in September 2022 and asked the automaker to assess consumer complaints about lower rear control arms breaking on its Model S and X vehicles.

The Norwegian agency could recommend that Tesla recall the vehicles to replace the parts if it determines they pose a “serious risk.” However, it could also close the review if there is no safety issue or decide to extend the investigation.

Asked about the Norwegian probe, the Swedish agency said it too had received “a number of notifications about cars from the Tesla brand that have suffered from similar problems”.

A spokesperson for the Swedish regulator declined to comment further on details of the investigation as it was still ongoing.

News of the Swedish and Norwegian inquiries follows a Reuters investigation published on Wednesday that exposed how Tesla has blamed drivers for frequent failures of suspension and steering parts that it has long known were defective.

Facing soaring warranty costs, Tesla sought to slash spending on repairs in part by attributing the failures to “driver abuse,” according to the report, which was based on thousands of Tesla documents and interviews with former employees, including service managers and technicians in Norway.