- Stellantis and Tesla have both overtaken Ford to become the brands responsible for the most recalls.
- Tesla topped the list, issuing 15 recalls affecting 5.1 million EVs, although some were simple OTA fixes.
- Ford had topped the list for the three previous years and was on target to make it four in summer 2024.
Being named the third worst brand in America for recalls doesn’t sound like anything to be proud of. But Ford execs will be fist-bumping left, right and center this week after learning that they’ve been pushed down to bronze spot by Tesla and Stellantis.
For three years straight starting in 2021, Ford (and Lincoln) was the worst in the industry for recalls. Last year it issued more recalls, and those recalls involved more cars, than any other automaker. And when we crunched the numbers halfway through this year, it looked like it was going to get the golden raspberry once again.
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But in the last six months both Tesla and Stellantis (which includes the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiat brands), have crept past to assume the top two positions. Tesla has only announced 15 recall campaigns to Stellantis’s 67 and Ford’s 62, but looking at the total number of cars recalled, the EV brand is way out in front.
Including the recall announced this week concerning the tire pressure monitoring systems on 700,000 Model 3s, Model Ys and the Cybertruck, Tesla has recalled 5,135,697 cars, compared with 4,722,452 for Stellantis and 4,370,701 for Ford. For reference Ford issued 54 recalls affecting 5,692,135 vehicles in 2023, but Stellantis has gone from bad to worse. Although it was also in second spot last year, on that occasion it only announced 45 recalls for 2,689,297 vehicles.
The occupant of fourth spot in the new table might surprise you, though. Honda (and Acura) didn’t even feature in the ten worst-performing brands last year, but 18 campaigns concerning 3.8 million vehicles put it far ahead of fifth-place GM (which includes the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC brands), whose 33 recalls affected a relatively small 1.9 million cars, trucks and SUVs in 2024.
BMW and its sister brands claimed the sixth spot with recalls impacting 1.8 million vehicles. Toyota (together with Lexus) followed in seventh with 1.22 million units, while Kia landed in eighth with 1.21 million. Completing the top 10 were Hyundai (along with Genesis) at 1.11 million and VW (including Audi) at 1.09 million.
Hang on though, because here comes the asterisk. All of these numbers, including the brands’ positions in the recall league table, are accurate as of December 20. But the year’s not over yet, and one massive recall for any of the second to fourth-placed automakers in the next 10 days could change everything. We’ll revisit this list with the final numbers once the year wraps up.