Tesla issues urgent recall notice for Cybertruck models over worrying wheel fault

Elon Musk's electric car brand Tesla has issued a recall notice on two years worth of Cybertruck models in the wake of a worrying fault discovery that could see the car's wheels fall off mid-drive. The wheels are quite literally falling off the Tesla Cybertruck, with the vehicle from Musk's brainchild electric car brand some have considered a flop thanks to poor sales, a hefty price tag, numerous quality control issues resulting in numerous recall notices and its failure to live up to claims the car is "bulletproof". This latest recall alert, issued by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla details a significant fault found in the wheels of its all rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck The recall notice speaks of fragile stud holes, weakened by vibrations caused by merely being on the road, could see cracks to form which may eventually see the "wheel stud to separate from the wheel hub". Wheel studs are the threaded fasteners that hold on the wheels of the car. If the holes surrounding them become fragile and break, they have nothing to grab onto. Therefore, with nothing to grip, the wheel bolts will fail, and the wheels will quite literally fall off. The recall notice adds this may affect "vehicle controllability, increasing the risk of a collision" or even death. The recall population includes Cybertruck models manufactured between March 21, 2024, and November 25, 2025, that were equipped with 18-inch steel wheels. The recall notice applies to all 18-inch wheels attached to 2024–2026 Cybertruck models, whether they were attached by production or in-service. The car brand, owned by Musk, will replace the hubs, lug nuts, and front and rear brake rotors on all affected vehicles at no cost to the motorist. The recall notice states that a technician observed the wheel stud problem in only one Cybertruck model during a routine service back in August 2025. Tesla has since identified only three warranty claims that may be related to the condition. The fault has not caused any "collisions, fatalities, or injuries", that Tesla is aware of, the car brand added in the recall notice. There are only 173 of the stainless steel vehicles out there on the roads that are impacted by the recall notice. This flies in the face of previous comments made by founder Elon Musk, who said ahead of the vehicle’s launch that Tesla would be selling 250,000 Cybertrucks annually by 2025. In reality, that number ended up being more like 20,000 Cybertrucks sold last year. And, to make matters worse, data indicates that Musk's own SpaceX is the largest Cybertruck customer. As per recent data collated by the world's leading automotive analytics company, S&P Global Mobility, SpaceX purchased nearly one in five of all vehicles sold in the US in 2025's fourth quarter. In early 2026, Tesla lost its position as the world’s leading electric car seller to Chinese car brand BYD, which has followed two successive years of falling sales for the billionaire's car brand. As for Tesla's UK arm, several recall notices have been issued for its cars, including the latest Cybertruck issue. Here are all UK recalls for Tesla vehicles, spanning 2024 to current: Cybertruck's wheels-off drama (May 2026): Specific Cybertruck models are subject to a voluntary recall notice, amid concerns over wheel studs may separate from the wheel Tesla rearview camera fail (2024-2025 vehicles): This recall notice affected certain Model 3, Y, S, and X vehicles operating software prior to 2024.44.25.3 or 2024.45.25. The programming fault caused the rearview camera to display incorrectly Tesla unlatched bonnet alert problem (2024): A voluntary recall was issued for more than 1.8 million vehicles due to a software issue that could have resulted in the car not letting the driver know if the bonnet was unlatched Cybertruck's faulty accelerator pedal (2024): Nearly 4,000 of the flop make of the Tesla brand were recalled globally thanks to an accelerator pedal that could become stuck to the floor.