NHTSA Complaint #11664968 — 2023 TESLA MODEL Y

Description of Incident: I was taking my family on a road trip from Disneyland back home to Chandler, Arizona when our 2022 Tesla Model Y displayed a battery issue. We stopped in Palm Springs to charge, but the battery would only charge very slowly and capped out at 32%. We brought the vehicle to the Palm Springs Tesla Service Center, where they diagnosed a failure in the high-voltage (HV) battery and stated it would need to be replaced — a process that would take about a week. Given that the car is only two years old, I found it concerning that a battery expected to last around 10 years would already need replacement. We were provided a loaner vehicle and returned to Arizona. When the repair was completed, I drove the loaner vehicle back to Palm Springs (a 5-hour trip) to pick up my car. On the return drive home, I stopped at a Tesla Supercharger in Quartzsite, Arizona, but the vehicle would not charge. After spending over 90 minutes on the phone with Tesla roadside assistance, a tow truck was dispatched and took both me and the car to the Glendale, AZ Tesla Service Center. There, I was informed — again — that the HV battery needed to be replaced. I explained that this component had just been replaced two days ago in Palm Springs, and asked for an explanation. I was not provided with any specific technical reason for the repeated failure, other than being told that the battery "just needs to be replaced again." Safety Concerns: At this point, I am deeply concerned that there may be a more significant or systemic issue with the vehicle’s electrical or battery systems that has not been properly identified. The repeated HV battery failures — combined with the lack of a clear explanation — raise serious safety concerns for my family and me, especially given how reliant the vehicle is on this system for power, propulsion, and emergency response.