2018 Tesla Model S problems
NHTSA has received 292 complaints about the 2018 Tesla Model S, and 24% of them involve forward collision avoidance. After that come electrical system (12%) and cruise control (10%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 292 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Forward collision avoidance 24% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 65 and 9
- Injuries and deaths
- 43 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 14,000 miles 99 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 68 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 20 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 6 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 1 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 2 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 1 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 1 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 99 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 14,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 65 complaints mention a crash; 9 complaints mention a fire; 43 injuries reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 92% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2018 ranks 5th most-complained-about out of 13 model years of the Tesla Model S with enough data (214 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 11 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
The car unintended accelerated when I pulled into garage and wait for garage door open. The sudden acceleration is totally out of control, even my foot firmly step on the break pedal. The accelerated car went through the garage door towards right, and hit and lift the other parked SUV inside the garage. The speed and force push the SUV towards the back of garage wall, and totally damaged the part of my garage.
I had a 2018 tesla s. I was driving north on us 395 in lane 2 of a 4 lane divided highway at 0030 about 20 miles south of lone pine, ca. It was pitch black out. I was the driver of a tesla s in semiautonomous driver-assist mode. The road was going up hill and I clicked my turn signal to pass a semi trailer and my car went into the left lane and passed the truck. After going a significant distance in front of the truck and starting down hill and I clicked my turn signal to return to the right lane.
Multiple components failed or malfunctioned. FSD beta, lane keeping assistance, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and Automatic emergency braking, all failed or malfunctioned. I have requested TESLA to provide me the details on what happened, but after multiple attempts of reaching out to them, they are not providing any answers. I was driving with my son and we both got injured, my son was admitted to the hospital for 4 days. I am not sure if TESLA inspected it, they are not answering my questions.
The touch screen has become completely unresponsive/went dark. I first discovered the problem while the car was parked in the garage, infrequently used. This has been the case for the last 4 weeks, also rendering the mobile app unresponsive/unable to connect to my car. As a result, the AC has been stuck on, running continuously for a month since this issue started. My tesla service appt. Has been delayed twice due to replacement parts unavailable.
Here is a tesla in the junkyard [link removed] the only damage is to the front lh side. The steel bumper attachment bar is undamaged which suggests that the damage was not the result of a frontal impact. Regardless of the cause of the damage the fact is that once again the cast monkey-metal steering knuckle has fractured in half. The car also does appear to be bottomed out on its air suspension. Teslas do not have any limit stops on the suspension.