Alfa Romeo Beats Porsche in J.D. Power's IQS: Tesla, Rivian, Polestar and Lucid Rank Last

The Italian brand made a reputation for gorgeous cars that were great to drive when they worked. Jean-Philippe Imparato said in April 2022 that he was determined to change that with the Tonale. Although this model is already for sale in the US, it was the Stelvio that ranked as the best in its category (compact premium SUV). That suggests the improvements affected all Alfa Romeo products, leading Imparato and his team to achieve that goal. Porsche is known as one of the companies with better quality control in the world, side by side with Lexus. Both ate dust from the Cuore Sportivo brand.

Unsurprisingly, Tesla was among the worst brands in the IQS, but Lucid decided to beat the American competitor as the company making cars with the most defects: 340 PP100 against 257 PP100. Polestar and Rivian were also in this dispute for the worst company in IQS but could not beat Lucid: the Swedish company scored 313 PP100, and the American adventure brand reached 282 PP100. Lucid and Rivian do not appear in the official graphic because their samples are still too small to consider.

Sadly, they would not be officially ranked even if they had already sold enough cars to be eligible. None of these four BEV makers granted J.D. Power access to data in states where automakers' authorizations are mandatory. The consumer insights company elegantly framed that as "not meeting the study award criteria." As much as Lucid, Polestar, and Rivian want to be set apart from Tesla, they keep following its bad examples in more aspects than they could care to acknowledge.

According to Frank Hanley, "today's new vehicles are more complex – offering new and exciting technology, but not always satisfying owners." The senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power also said that the auto industry "is facing a wide range of quality problems, a phenomenon not seen in the 37-year history of the IQS." J.D. Power does not link that to the electric shift, but it is clear that trying to sell BEV vehicles is causing an impact on quality control.

One of the main defects the IQS detected was related to door handles. Opening and exiting a vehicle should not represent any problem, especially considering how old the automotive industry is and how basic it is to get inside a car to drive it. Tesla started this with flush door handles that retract to improve aerodynamics and electronic mechanisms to save weight. What customers faced were door handles that had to be replaced several times. When they worked, they often froze in cold weather or would not work due to 12V battery issues. Emergency release mechanisms demanded a look at the owner's manual or even special tools to be accessed. In true emergencies, that may have trapped several customers. J.D. Power stated that 7 of the 10 vehicles that presented issues with door handles the most were powered by battery packs.

Other problems detected by J.D. Power involve "features, controls, and displays," infotainment, Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS), wireless smartphone charging, and safety systems that do not work as they should. Although the consumer insights company did not mention phantom braking, it is certainly one of the causes of dissatisfaction with automatic emergency braking. Tesla owners are known for complaining about this issue. Steve Wozniak was very vocal about that, accusing his Tesla of trying to kill him several times due to phantom braking.

J.D. Power mentioned several other issues, such as "greater usage and penetration of technology; continued integration of known problematic audio systems into other new models; poor sounding horns; cupholders that don't serve their purpose; and new models with 11 PP100 more than carryover models." In other words, the company is talking about vehicles that are already in production and did not even face a facelift. Theoretically, their production processes should have improved as time went by, but these cars are getting worse, not better.

What is causing this quality decline? Is it the pressure to have higher profit margins to fund the BEV shift? Is it that making such vehicles is putting carmakers in uncharted territory, with elements they are not familiar with? Alfa Romeo's historic win shows it has to do more with a will to invest in selling better products than with any possible excuse automaker may elaborate. Considering Dodge and Ram also fared pretty well, what the J.D. Power's IQS truly showed is that Stellantis is doing its homework. Too bad everybody else is apparently ignoring it.