Electric car maker Tesla has sent for a recall of about 7,000 adapters that are used for charging its products. The announcement comes after two chargers overheated and melted the plastic on the plugs. No other damage has been reported and Tesla has notified U.S. regulators of its voluntary recall.
According to Bloomberg, two customers reported the overheating issue in November. The accessories used were apparently not made by Tesla but manufactured by an outside supplier and haven’t been sold for at least six months. The adapter type in question is the NEMA 14-30 which are sometimes used to charge Tesla vehicles via clothes-dryer appliance outlets in U.S. homes. International customers will not be affected and the faulty chargers will be replaced in the next few weeks.
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The company is also replacing the NEMA 10-30 and 6-50 adapters. These will be replaced in about three months. There hasn’t been any reports of overheating or any other fault in the above mentioned adapters, but it seems that Tesla doesn’t want to take any chances.
Here is what Tesla had to say:
In November 2016, we learned about two customers whose NEMA 14-30 charging adapters overheated. These are the only two such incidents that we know of anywhere in the world and neither resulted in any injuries or property damage. However, out of an abundance of caution, we’re replacing NEMA 14-30, 10-30 and 6-50 adapters that were made years ago by our original supplier.
If you have one of these NEMA 14-30 adapters and regularly use it, you will receive a replacement from us within the next couple of weeks. Until then, we ask that you stop using your current adapter, and that you instead charge your car in a different way, such as with a Tesla Wall Connector or NEMA 14-50 adapter (if you have one), or by Supercharging.
Although there have been no incidents with NEMA 10-30 or 6-50 adapters, they have some common elements with the NEMA 14-30, so we will be replacing those as well. These replacements will take about three months to develop and manufacture. In the meantime, since none of these adapters has ever overheated, you can continue to use them if you do not have another way to charge your car.