2018 Tesla Model 3 — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 1,700 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Driver-assistance systems378 (22.2%)Official recall records for this system: 11, covering model years 2017–2025.
• Suspension180 (10.6%)Official recall records for this system: 5, covering model years 2018–2021.
• Electrical system160 (9.4%)Official recall records for this system: 12, covering model years 2017–2025.
• Air bags (restraint system)142 (8.4%)Official recall records for this system: 3, covering model years 2020–2024.
• Seat belts102 (6.0%)Official recall records for this system: 13, covering model years 2017–2023.
• Brakes90 (5.3%)Official recall records for this system: 3, covering model years 2019–2021.

Other / uncategorized: 172 classifications (10.1%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (8,554 records, model years 2017–2026) are most frequently classified under: driver-assistance systems, speed control & accelerator and brakes.
• Safety recalls (175 records, model years 2017–2026) are most frequently classified under: driver-assistance systems, electrical system and seat belts.
• Transport Canada recalls (102 records, model years 2017–2025) are most frequently classified under: seat belts, lights and visibility (glass, wipers, mirrors).
• Manufacturer communications (1,083 records, model years 2017–2026) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, equipment & accessories and body & structure.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 224reports included a mileage
• 25,833average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 2017 210 records for 2017 210
2. 2018 1,217 records for 2018 1,217
3. 2019 768 records for 2019 768
4. 2020 610 records for 2020 610
5. 2021 790 records for 2021 790
6. 2022 881 records for 2022 881
7. 2023 524 records for 2023 524
8. 2024 289 records for 2024 289
9. 2025 125 records for 2025 125
10. 2026 25 records for 2026 25

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 101mention a crash
• 4mention a fire
• 43mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 19
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 161
• Investigations NHTSA 15
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 12
• Owner complaints NHTSA 1,010

Explore the underlying evidence records