Tesla delays deliveries due to missing charge port part

Tesla appears to have a serious supply issue when it comes to its charging port electronic control unit (ECU) since many owners are reporting delays in deliveries due to the missing part.

Compared to the rest of the auto industry, Tesla has faired quite well amid the global supply issues, especially the chip shortage. While most other automakers saw their production and deliveries slow down, Tesla has managed to grow significantly over the last two years.

However, it hasn’t been immune to the issue, especially when it comes to the chips and control units. Tesla did warn that it expects continued various supply chain issues throughout the rest of the year, until the bottleneck again becomes battery cells sometime next year.

We are getting a good example of that today as many Tesla buyers are reporting getting their deliveries delayed over a missing charging port electronic control unit (ECU).

About a dozen Tesla Model 3 and Model Y buyers are reporting on the Tesla Motors Club forum that their new cars have been built, but they can’t be delivered since they are missing the charging port ECU.

Based on their reports, it looks like the issue started in mid-April and Tesla still delivered the vehicles from the factory to local service centers to wait for the part. In some cases, the vehicles have been sitting at the service centers for more than a month.

One of the buyers described his situation:

My issue now is I have a VIN assigned vehicle that was last charged on 4/19 sitting at a service center exposed to the elements without any type of ETA for the missing part meanwhile Fremont is pushing out cars and has the parts in stock. It seems like they’ve forgotten about our cars and we are just waiting indefinitely for when Tesla decides to send them the parts. I’m actively making the payments on the vehicle, large down payment paid on the 4/28, and nothing to show for it.

Several other buyers are in a similar situation – albeit maybe not for the payments on a car not delivered, since that’s related to locking the interest rates in this case.

Based on the number of reports it looks like a fairly widespread issue, and the fact that Tesla is shipping the cars to service centers with a missing part hints toward it affecting a lot of vehicles and/or having a long timeline for delivering the missing part.

Otherwise, it would be more efficient to fix the issue at the factory, but at this point, it makes more sense for Tesla to ship the part to the service center, which would add a significant workload for the service team.