Tesla is again in the middle of a lawsuit, and this time the automaker was found guilty of throttling the Supercharging speed of its Model S cars.
The automaker is ordered to pay $14,000 to affected car owners in Norway in a retrial of the process. Tesla stated that it is going to appeal.
Tesla's Throttling Problem
In 2019, Electrek reported that several Tesla car owners saw significant drops in their miles after the company rolled out a system software update. The Model S car with an 85 kWh battery pack is the only one affected by the range change.
For most car owners, the range drop happened after the system was updated to Tesla's 2019.16.1 and 2019.16.2 software updates.
David Rasmussen, a Tesla owner and one that was affected by the change, told Electrek that he got one of the most severe drops.
He said that his 2014 Model S 85 vehicle was getting a Rate Range of 247 miles until May 13, 2019. However, after the update, it continued to drop to 217 miles. In just five weeks, 11% drop was recorded.
Rasmussen stated that he has been taking note of his battery's capacity over the last 100,00 miles. This is why he was able to notice the drop.
Aside from the range loss, the fast-charging rate at Supercharger Tesla stations has been reduced. Affected car owners are seeing slow charging sessions.
Tesla told Electrek in an interview that the goal of the update is to protect the car's battery and to help improve its longevity. It results in range loss for a couple of owners, but not all of them.
The statement made by Tesla caused confusion among vehicle owners affected by the system update because they wanted more details about the company's need to protect the car's battery pack.
Tesla released a new update to fix the range issue, yet a lot of owners still said that the Supercharging speed was very low.
Owners Fight Back
The issue about the Supercharging speed and the range led to dozens of lawsuits in different markets for Tesla to compensate the affected car owners.
In Norway, the automaker was found guilty of throttling the charging speed over this issue by the country's local court who asked the company to pay $16,000 to each affected car owner, according to The Verge.
The court also found Tesla at fault without letting the company state their side because the automaker did not participate in the case. The company said they were not aware that a case was filed and asked for a retrial.
However, even after sharing their side of the story, the car company received the same judgment from the local court. The only difference is that the company is asked to pay each affected owner $14,000 instead of $16,000, according to Forbes.
Tesla admitted that it increased the charging time and changed its Superchargers' use, but said that customers were not entitled to be given a heads-up about any changes.
The update was rolled out to increase the life of the vehicle. The company is now preparing to make an appeal to the district court.
In the United States, Tesla filed a lawsuit against an engineer who downloaded thousands of sensitive files.
Last month, JP Morgan filed a lawsuit against Tesla for breach of contract.
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Written by Sophie Webster
