Norway to Fine Tesla $16k Over Battery Throttling: Will the US Follow Suit?

A court in Norway has found Tesla guilty of throttling its vehicles’ battery power through a software update, diminishing their range and charging speed. The EV company will have to pay $16,000 each to 30 Norwegian Tesla owners who filed suit. 

Tesla claims the update was intended to increase the safety and longevity of the batteries for their Model S and Model X vehicles. In January, a video surfaced of a Tesla car exploding in a Chinese parking garage after the battery was damaged. The move to diminish battery power to improve safety is believed to be in response to this and related concerns. 

Consumers are up in arms over Tesla’s handling of the issue–and not just in Norway. A lawsuit in Northern California is seeking to obtain class action status to compensate owners of affected vehicles in the US. The suit alleges that,

“Under the guise of ‘safety’ and increasing the ‘longevity’ of the batteries of the Class Vehicles, Tesla fraudulently manipulated its software with the intent to avoid its duties and legal obligations to customers to fix, repair, or replace the batteries of the Class Vehicles, all of which Tesla knew were defective, yet failed to inform its customers of the defects”

Tesla isn’t alone in the domain of consumer class action suits against car manufacturers. Mercedes-Benz faced a similar suit in 2020 for cheating emissions tests with its BlueTec diesel vehicles. Owners of affected vehicles may be paid upwards of $3000 to compensate for defective vehicles that failed to meet emissions standards on the road. If the suit gains traction, Tesla owners across America will seek similar compensation for their defective batteries.

CCC is closely monitoring this case as it nears class certification. We are proud to be your source for class action news and claim filing services. To receive updates about this and other similar cases that may affect you, sign up for email updates and follow our blog for more postings.