Tesla recalls 321K cars for tail light issue; 19th recall this year for automaker

There are more headaches for Tesla (TSLA) as the automaker revealed it is recalling 321,000 vehicles due to a safety issue.

In a filing posted over the weekend on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website, the automaker said some Tesla Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs had an issue that caused the tail lamps to “intermittently illuminate,” meaning poor visibility on the road in some instances. Tesla said the brake lights were not affected by the issue.

Tesla became aware of the issue from owners of cars in non-U.S. markets, and after investigating the issue, decided to perform a voluntary recall in order the fix the tail light malfunction. The recall will be performed via an over-the-air software update.

This weekend’s filing comes right after last Friday’s recall of around 30K Model X SUVs in the U.S. over a front passenger air bag issue, which will also be corrected with an OTA software update.

Total recalls for this year for Tesla now stand at 19 in the U.S, affecting nearly 3.77 million vehicles. Only Ford (F) has more vehicles affected by recalls, with approximately 8.8 million covering 63 recalls, according to NHTSA data. Note that vehicles can be subject to multiple recalls, so the exact number of vehicles affected by a recall this year is actually smaller than the total amount listed by NHTSA.

Nevertheless, mounting recall and remediation measures needed does take a toll on Tesla’s resources, at a time when the company is ramping up production across the globe as it tries to reach its 50% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) goal for vehicle deliveries, which would be around 1.4 million cars. CEO Elon Musk warned last quarter that the 2022 deliveries goal would likely be missed, though production figures would surpass a 50% growth rate in Q4.

Meanwhile, call are growing for Musk to focus more attention on the issues at hand at Tesla instead of spending time dealing with Twitter, which Musk purchased at the end of October. Growing competition from traditional automakers, and a weakening global economy, may hurt Tesla’s EV-market dominance.

Tesla’s stock price has been affected by these concerns, with shares down over 50% year to date.

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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

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