Tesla Electric Semi Recalled After Just A Few Months On The Road

Tesla’s electric Semi trucks are being recalled over a faulty electronic parking brake, according to a notice posted online by the NHSTA. The recall comes after Tesla made its first deliveries of the highly anticipated Semi to PepsiCo and Frito Lay this past December.

“A parking brake that is not engaged as expected when the driver releases the brakes may allow the vehicle to rollaway, increasing the risk of crash,” the NHSTA said in its recall notice.

The recall covers just 35 vehicles, another testament to how few of these have been delivered so far. Tesla will replace the faulty brake free of charge, according to the NHSTA.

The all-electric Tesla Semi garnered a lot of attention when it was first announced during a splashy ceremony by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2017. But it took many years to finally become a reality, with production of the vehicles starting in October 2022 and deliveries to customers beginning in December.

The Tesla Semi has an impressive range of 500 miles on a single charge and attracted pre-orders from a number of companies, including Walmart, Anheuser-Busch and UPS. PepsiCo reportedly hopes to have 100 Tesla Semi trucks on the road by the end of this year.

As CNN notes, there have been a number of social media posts showing the Tesla Semi broken down on the side of the road during its relatively short life. But Tesla is known for fixing problems with software updates after cars have been introduced. In the case of the brake recall, it’s clear this wasn’t something that could be fixed with an over-the-air update.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday, probably because the electric vehicle company shut down its PR office in 2020. Musk has an adversarial relationship with the press and shut down Twitter’s press office when he took over that company late last year. I’ll update this article if I hear back, but I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.