Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) made it clear that there is no safety defects in the suspensions of its Model S and Model X vehicles, in a statement released on Friday.
The electric car manufacturer also clarified that the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not opened any investigation or started any preliminary investigation on the issue.
Tesla also noted that the blogger who fabricated the issue was Edward Niedemeyer, the same person who wrote the blog, Tesla Death Watch.” The company said, “It is probably wise to take Niedermeyer’s words with at least a small grain of salt,” since he has been counting the days since May 19, 2008 until Tesla’s death.
The electric car manufacturer is uncertain if Niedemeyer or his associates have something financial to gain by negatively affecting its stock price. Tesla highlighted the fact that “there are several billion dollars in short sale bet” against its stock.
“This means that there is a strong financial incentive to greatly amplify minor issues and to create false issues from whole cloth,” said Tesla.
The shares of Tesla are trading $221.33 per share, down by 3.5% around 1:17 in the afternoon in New York on Friday.
Tesla is aware of any incident happening to customer cars
In a statement, Tesla emphasized that it is aware of every incident happening to its customers’ cars and each part being replaced since the company owns all of its service centers.
The electric car manufacturer said it is conducting a full investigation whenever there is a potential issue with one of the replaced parts. It is also performing an extensive durability testing. Tesla expressed high confidence on its vehicles’ suspension.
NHTSA routine screening
Tesla also explained that the NHTSA informally requested the company to provide information related to its suspension as part of its routine screening on April 20. The electric car manufacturer provided all relevant information to the agency on April 30.
“NHTSA has since told us that we have cooperated fully and that no further information is needed. Neither before nor after this information was provided has NHTSA identified any safety issue with Tesla’s suspensions. This can be confirmed with NHTSA,” the electric car manufacturer said.
Furthermore, Tesla emphasized that it “has never and would never ask a customer to sign a document” to prevent him or her from reporting to the NHTSA or any other government agency.
Goodwill Agreement with customers
Tesla emphasized that it is putting the happiness of its customers’ ahead of its bottom line by offering discount or a free repair even if they reported a problem that wasn’t caused by the car, which is not covered by the warranty. In those situations, the company asked the customers to sign a “Goodwill Agreement”
According to the company, the Goodwill Agreement was only intended to “ensure that Tesla doesn’t do a good deed, only to have that used against us in court for further gain. These situations are very rare, but have sometimes occurred in the past.”
“One thing is clear: this agreement never even comes close to mentioning NHTSA or the government and it has nothing to do with trying to stop someone from communicating with NHTSA or the government about our cars. We have absolutely no desire to do something like that. It is deeply ironic that the only customer who apparently believes that this document prevents him from talking to NHTSA is also the same one who talked to NHTSA,” said Tesla.
 made it clear that there is no safety defects in the suspensions of its Model S and Model X vehicles, in a statement released on Friday.){kind=link}