Tesla included in J.D. Power survey for the first time, and it’s bad

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Tesla)

On Wednesday, J.D. Power has just released its Initial Quality Survey for 2020. Conducted annually for the past 34 years, the survey queries buyers of new cars of that model year to find out what, if any, problems they encountered within the first 90 days of ownership. Each brand is then ranked on the number of problems it experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100).

2020 is the first year that Tesla has been included in the survey, and as readers of our recent story on Model Y problems might have guessed, things don't look great for the California-based electric car company. Meanwhile, things look very good for Dodge, which shares the top spot with Kia.

According to J.D. Power's survey, Tesla's initial quality score is 250 PP100, a feat which makes even Audi and Land Rover seem reliable by comparison. Although to be entirely accurate, Tesla isn't officially ranked last, because the brand won't allow J.D. Power to survey its customers in 15 states where OEM permission is apparently required. "However, we were able to collect a large enough sample of surveys from owners in the other 35 states and, from that base, we calculated Tesla's score," said Doug Betts, president of the automotive division at J.D. Power.

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