Tesla is issuing a recall for around 46,000 Cybertrucks sold to date because of an exterior steel trim panel on the side of the windshield that can peel off.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a filing that the piece can come off while in motion, which can create a hazard for the driver and other people on the road. The filing states that Tesla became aware of the problem in early January and has identified 151 warranty claims related to this panel coming off since then. The company is not aware of any resulting crashes or injuries, according to the filing.
The problem with the panel occurs because the “structural adhesive” that holds it in place on the vehicle is “susceptible to environmental embrittlement,” according to the filing. Tesla will fix Cybertrucks covered by the recall at no cost to owners by using a “different structural adhesive not prone to environmental embrittlement.” It will also use a nut to “clamp” the steel panel to the vehicle structure.
The new recall is the eighth for Tesla’s Cybertruck — a vehicle which is outselling other electric trucks but has underperformed Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s hopes for its success. Many of its past problems have been fixed using an over-the-air software update, but some have required owners to bring their EVs in for service.
Two of the recalls that required service have been related to pieces of the Cybertruck coming loose. The first, in April 2024, happened when owners noticed the cover of the throttle pedal was coming loose and sliding up, potentially causing a situation where it could get stuck at full throttle. The second, in June 2024, had to do with a trim piece on the truck’s bed that was prone to coming loose because of insufficient adhesive.
That history with adhesive failures did not seem to raise a ton of red flags at Tesla this time around, though, according to the filing. After Tesla was alerted to the first complaint about the windshield panel, it began an “engineering study” to investigate the problem. On February 6, the company closed the study after an “inspection and pull test” found “no detections of separation.”
It was only after NHTSA reached out to Tesla on February 21 with a customer complaint about the problem that Tesla dug deeper into social media posts and service records, according to the filing. It agreed to the recall the Cybertrucks on March 11.