Tesla was found guilty of restricting charging speed and battery capacity through a software update in a Norwegian court as reported by Nettavisen.
Tesla Norway
Electric car company Tesla Norway will have to pay $16,000 to each of the thousands of owners impacted throughout the country unless it files an appeal. The penalties might be substantially higher, given that other nations are considering similar legal measures.
A 2019 software update was discovered to have damaged the battery life of Tesla Model S vehicles made between 2013 and 2015. According to the complainants, despite being meant to “protect” the batteries, the update lowered range and impaired battery charging times at Supercharger stations for some Tesla customers. This prompted hundreds of Norwegian Tesla owners to file a complaint with the country’s conciliation council.
On April 29, more than 30 Norwegian consumers won in the conciliation council. Because Tesla in Norway AS did not file a rebuttal, the case was settled by default. It’s unclear if Tesla will pay or not. The judgment was handed out on May 17th, and the corporation was given until May 31st to pay or file an appeal with the Oslo Conciliation Board by June 17th.
As reported by Reuters, Tesla negotiated an out-of-court settlement with 126 Norwegian consumers in 2016 who claimed their cars didn’t live up to the promises made in the company’s marketing.
Norway is one of the top markets for electric cars in the world, due to hefty government incentives targeted at expanding transportation electrification. For many years, Tesla was the best-selling car in the country, but Volkswagen just surpassed it. According to TheVerge, Norway is using a slew of tax breaks to help it meet its goal of making all new vehicles sold in the country zero-emission by 2025.