Tesla’s Moving NHTSA Deadline on Accident Data, Iced Superchargers in Sweden, & New Model Y L in Australia

We’ve got a few recent Tesla-focused stories that don’t quite justify a full story on their own, but which seem too notable to skip.

Tesla FSD Accident Data

Tesla, like other companies, has to report certain data on accidents or incidents that occur during self-driving to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). However, it has been delaying providing some of this data to the NHTSA. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything nefarious about this — probably — but the company is really dragging its feet.

Tesla originally had a deadline of January 19 to provide CAN bus files, video footage, and event data recorder (EDR) information related to accidents that occurred while FSD was driving. But Tesla apparently couldn’t meet that deadline and it was extended too February 23, yesterday. Tesla couldn’t meet that deadline either, and it has been extended again, this time to March 6.

We just have a bit more information on this story, without a lot of detail. “Tesla’s reason for the second delay was a matter of determining just which files were needed to satisfy the investigation. The incident list from a separate NHTSA question had to be compiled first. Then, with that list in place, Tesla could start getting the data together to answer the question that followed the other question. It turns out that the NHTSA wants quite a bit of data from Tesla, and Tesla is struggling to gather it all together,” TipRanks reports.

Meanwhile, over in Sweden…

Tesla Superchargers Iced in Sweden

No, not ICEd — the term used in the industry to indicate that non-electric vehicles park in charging station parking spots and block electric vehicles from charging. No, in this case, the Tesla Superchargers were literally iced. In freezing temperatures, people who were none too happy with the face of Tesla and its biggest individual shareholder, Elon Musk, poured water into the plugs of charging cables, leading to them being blocked with ice. Naturally, that meant people who pulled up to charge could not do so.

How do we know people who despise Elon Musk did this? Well, a large poster was also put up at the charging station with a picture of Elon Musk doing the Nazi salute alongside some words of anti-fascism, anti-strikebreaking, and the ending line “GO HOME ELON.”

Of course, Sweden is also where Tesla has long been battling with the workers union IF Metall. Musk doesn’t want Tesla to sign any collective bargaining agreement, which is the norm in the country.

IF Metall has gotten support from other unions in these past two years, especially more recently. For example, the Swedish Union for Service and Communications Employees (SEKO), “in a gesture of sympathy, cut off the electricity going to Tesla’s charging stations.” However, at this Supercharger in Vansbro that was just iced, Tesla had brought in an electricity generator to get it back into operation. That generator was out of order at the time of the icing as well, but it’s not clear if it was vandalized or broken by the political/union activists.

IF Metall did distance itself from these activities. However, the union continued to speak out against Tesla’s stubborn stance on the ongoing battle over a collective bargaining agreement. “We think it is remarkable that instead of taking the easy route and signing a collective agreement for our members, they are choosing to use every possible means to get around the strike, says Jesper Pettersson, press spokesperson at IF Metall.”

3-Row Tesla Model Y

One of the hopes Tesla fans have had for reviving Tesla sales growth is the Tesla Model Y L, a longer version of the Model Y with three rows of seating and 6 seats in total that was launched in China. Many hoped it would be launched in the US and would significantly boost sales here. However, it’s not clear if that will ever happen. If it does, it’s not supposed to happen until the end of this year. Over in Australia, though, this is imminent.

This new, longer version of Tesla’s most popular model has now been spotted on the Australian government’s ROVER website, showing that it has been approved for sale in the country.

This trim is about 177 mm longer than the regular Model Y — bringing it to 4969 mm. Its wheelbase is about 150 mm longer, at 3040 mm.

The Model Y L has also received regulatory approval in Europe but isn’t yet for sale there. One would think that it will be announced for consumer sale and listed on its websites in Australia and various European countries in the next few months.

Launching in these other countries outside of China, one would think that the Model Y L will eventually come to the US. I imagine 1) Tesla will need the sales boost and this could provide some help, and 2) Musk is just trying to avoid the Osborne effect and not have Americans forego buying a Model Y sooner as they wait for the Model Y L. But we’ll see.