Tesla has been found guilty of throttling Supercharger speed on older Model S vehicles in Norway. The automaker has been ordered to pay impacted customers 130,000 kroner (~$14,200 USD) each.
With an estimated 10,000 2013-2015 Model S owners in the country, the potential fine adds up to about $142 million USD.
Tesla plans to appeal the ruling.
This is actually the second time Tesla has been found guilty of these claims. Earlier this year they were found to have intentionally lowered the charging speeds of their 2013-2015 Model S vehicles through an over-the-air (OTA) software update in 2019.
Tesla did not respond to the lawsuit or attend the hearing, so an ‘absence judgement’ was rendered in favour of the more than 30 plaintiffs in the case. In that ruling, Tesla was ordered to pay 136,000 kroner (~$16,200 USD) to owners.
Tesla later responded saying they were not aware of the case, and requested a retrial. Even though they were able to tell their side of the story, in which they claimed the OTA update was deployed to increase the battery life of the cars, it wasn’t enough to change the previous ruling.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Christian Hagen, was happy with the verdict, but did not say much as Tesla plans to appeal the case to district court.
“My clients are satisfied that the conciliation council assumed that Tesla had reduced the charging speed, and that they did not have access to make this change. Our assessment is that this verdict is correct. However, since Tesla has signaled that they will take the case to the district court, it is not natural to comment further.” (via StreetInsider)
Tesla faced a similar case in the US, which was settled earlier this with each impacted owner receiving $625.
Tesla Model S owners to receive $625 over software update suit
