The United States and China have simultaneously recalled. This time Tesla finally no longer “dual standard”, but the “Oolong” with the supplier made it once again on the hot search. Due to short-axis risks, Tesla recently recalled more than 20,000 Model Y vehicles in China. After the recall announcement, Tesla’s steering knuckle supplier Tuopu Group’s share price fell in response.
It is worth mentioning that the recall of Tesla and the sharp drop in stock price made Tuopu Group “stunned.” Tuopu Group claimed: “No information has been obtained in advance.” It was not until December 5 that Tuopu Group issued an announcement explaining the specific reasons for the recall of parts and components, and said that “the problem is not big.” From Tesla’s initiation of the recall to Tuopu Group, there were two responses, but a seemingly ordinary recall led to a “god operation” between Tesla and the supplier.
“Unknowingly” “Explanation on Sunday”… On December 5, Tuopu Group’s “Explanation” announcement arrived as scheduled.
The announcement showed that due to the insufficient water level of the quenching tank in a heat treatment production line, individual products were not completely immersed in the quenching liquid, resulting in the strength of the steering knuckle that may not meet the design requirements. The products involved in this recall only support Model Y, and do not involve other Tesla models, nor do they involve other customers’ models.
On December 3, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued an announcement on its website that Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. shall supervise and manage the national market in accordance with the requirements of the “Regulations on the Recall of Defective Automobile Products” and the “Implementation Measures for the Regulations on the Recall of Defective Automobile Products.” The General Administration filed the recall plan. With immediate effect, the recall of some domestically-made Model Y electric vehicles with a production date between February 4th and October 30th, 2021, totaling approximately 21,600 vehicles. In this recall, the reason given by Tesla is that due to the manufacturer’s manufacturing reasons, the strength of the front and rear steering knuckles may not meet the design requirements. The steering knuckle may be deformed or broken during the use of the vehicle, and the suspension link may fall out of the steering knuckle under extreme stress conditions, which affects the driving control of the vehicle, increases the risk of collision accidents, and poses safety hazards.
In early November of this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Tesla is applying for the recall of 826 models of some Model Y produced in 2020-2022. The same reason is that the steering knuckle connecting rod has the potential to break. Although the reasons for the two recall announcements in China and the United States are the same, the domestic recall directly named the supplier, which also made the outside world guess whether the two are the same supplier.
After the announcement of Tesla’s domestic recall, the named supplier Tuopu Group’s share price fell in response, with the largest drop of 10.01% at one time. As of the close on December 3, Tuopu Group’s share price was 57.2 yuan per share, a drop of 8.86%. However, at this time, Tuopu Group was “stunned” and responded: “The incident happened suddenly and the company has not obtained any information in advance. At present, it has begun to understand the details of the matter and make an assessment of the corresponding consequences. The company will be on Sunday. (December 5) In the afternoon, I gave a detailed explanation to investors.” The emergence of this response has caused many netizens to speculate: Is it not a supplier problem? Does the manufacturer initiate the recall without the supplier’s knowledge? Is Tesla throwing the pot again? The Tesla recall was once top searched.
Announcement “get into trouble”
However, “Eating Melon” netizens may be disappointed, and Tuopu Group is not innocent.
It is not uncommon for automakers to recall due to supplier production process or product problems. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Honda, and Nissan have all done so, but there has been no “unknowing” reaction similar to Tuopu Group. Industry insiders believe that the reason why Tuopu Group gave an “uninformed” response may be the fault of Tesla’s recall announcement.
A reporter from Beijing Business Daily noticed that if a car company initiated a recall involving a supplier, it would be clearly stated in the announcement that some batches of products had problems. The expression in this Tesla recall is: “Due to supplier manufacturing reasons, The strength of the front and rear steering knuckles may not meet the design requirements. “It is not clear whether there is a problem with a single batch or the supplier’s overall product. The Tuopu Group announced that according to the company’s test results, the probability of defects in this batch of suspicious products is about 0.2%-1%. This means that Tuopu Group’s products are only a certain batch of problems, and the scope of influence is not large.
The relevant person in charge of Tuopu Group stated that the heat treatment production line has been rectified and improved to ensure that the products are fully quenched, and at the same time, 200% of the product hardness is tested. The company has provided 132 inspection instruments for identifying risky parts to service centers across Tesla, which can quickly complete the inspection and replace the identified defective products. The company has established a problem handling and response committee to quickly respond to customer needs within 24 hours.
“Automakers need to make sure that there are no problems with the suppliers’ current spare parts before they can carry out the recall of vehicles.” Yan Jinghui, a member of the Expert Committee of China Automobile Dealers Association, said that from Tuopu Group’s statement, the supplier has improved the production line, which means Tesla was able to replace qualified parts for vehicles within the scope of the recall after the recall was initiated. Therefore, Tesla may not have notified Tuopu Group before the announcement of the recall, which led to the occurrence of the “Oolong” incident, and the two parties communicated There is a problem.
In addition, as to who will pay for the expenses caused by part of Tesla’s domestic Model Y, Tuopu Group stated in the announcement that it is temporarily unable to determine the cost of the recall. The company actively communicates with Tesla while cooperating with the implementation of the recall. , And will promptly disclose progress announcements based on subsequent progress.
However, industry insiders believe that the reason why Tuopu Group’s share price fell due to a recall announcement is also because Tuopu Group’s development in recent years cannot be separated from Tesla’s support. According to data, Tuopu Group officially became a Tesla supplier in August 2016. According to data, Tuopu Group’s revenue from Tesla last year was 1.1 billion yuan, accounting for 18% of the revenue; in the first half of this year, Tuopu Group’s revenue from Tesla was about 55.463 million yuan. The proportion of current operating income was 32.8%. After becoming a Tesla supplier, Tuopu Group has also entered the supplier list of more car companies, including self-owned brand car companies such as Weilai, Xiaopeng, Weimar, BYD and Geely.Beijing Commercial Daily reporter Liu Yang Liu XiaomengReturn to Sohu to see more
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