Model years Tesla Model S

2022 Tesla Model S

This year drew an ordinary 136 complaints for a Tesla Model S — the model's median is 176. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.6% of them mention direction, against 0.7% across the model's other years.

Generation 1 of the Tesla Model S, which began in 2012. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.

Complaints filed136
Median for this model176
Involving a crash3
Recalls20
EPA combined116 mpg

What the complaints were about

Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.

What owners wrote

The navigation system keeps giving wrong directions due to an error in the GPS signal, I had to use my phone for route frequently. This is distracting and dangerous, and can lead to fatal accidents.
Driver door does not unlock after a trip, with passengers inside the vehicle. Driver is unable to exit the vehicle from the driver door. This has happened a couple times now, a Tesla mechanic stopped by after the first time, but didn’t find any issue. It’s hap…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

Showing 8 of 20. The rest are on NHTSA's site.

Own a 2022 Tesla Model S? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Tesla Model S was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

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