Although not common, cases of accelerator pedal breaking off have been reported in the past
With car components being manufactured in hundreds of thousands, it is likely that a small percentage will turn out to be defective. This can happen even when there are strict quality control measures in place. If the problem is found across multiple cars, the OEM may choose to announce a recall.
In a recent case, the owner of a Nexon EV has reported a broken accelerator pedal. This seems like a relatively new issue, although some cases have been reported earlier as well. The owner has notified Tata Motors and requested a resolution.
Nexon EV accelerator pedal breaks into two
According to the Nexon EV owner, the accelerator pedal broke randomly while driving. There was no impact or anything of that sort, which could have possibly caused the breakage of the accelerator pedal. The owner is certainly not happy, as no one would expect such things to occur. One of the reasons why people buy Nexon and Nexon EV is because these vehicles have received 5-star safety rating in Global NCAP crash tests.
However, it is important to understand that crash tests do not measure the strength of individual components. Moreover, this specific case of accelerator pedal breakage may be due to an inherent flaw in the material used for making the pedal. It could be also due to poor workmanship. A closeup of the broken accelerator pedal reveals that the point of breakage is where the pedal connects to another part inside the vehicle. The pedal rod itself is intact.
This shows that the problem could also be due to a bad connecting mechanism or one that is not installed properly. Over a period of time, stresses on the material may have caused it to collapse completely.
Expecting effective resolution from Tata Motors
It is expected that Tata Motors and/or Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited in this case will carry out a thorough investigation. While replacing the accelerator pedal will be the easy thing to do, the more important goal will be to find out the root cause of this problem. Subsequently, it needs to be investigated if there’s a probability of other cars having the same issue. It may not have happened yet, but the risks can be there.
It was fortunate that nothing untoward happened in this case of accelerator pedal breaking. There can be various scenarios in which sudden breakage of accelerator pedal can be a trigger for an accident.
For example, it would have been a difficult situation if the pedal had broken off when the vehicle was overtaking at high speeds. Thankfully, nothing of that sort happened. We hope the Nexon EV owner gets a resolution soon and such cases do not occur again.
Source: Electric - rushlane.com
