Court Finds Tesla Guilty of Nerfing Battery Performance in Software Update

Tesla never showed up to court.

Cannot Stop the Battery

A court in Norway has found Tesla guilty of limiting charging speeds and battery capacity via software update, Electrek reports.

Barring an appeal, Tesla will have to pay $16,000 to any Norwegian drivers whose Teslas were affected by the update — roughly 10,000 customers, according to Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen.

In fact, in Electrek's analysis, the case could lead to similar charges in other countries as well — meaning that this is a legal decision that could potentially send shockwaves through Tesla's worldwide operation.

Range Drop

Several Model S and X models that were discontinued in 2016 were affected by a range drop, which equated to between 12 and 30 miles. The update dates back to the car company's 2019.16.1 and .2 software updates.

More than 30 customers in Norway came forward with the case, which went ahead as Tesla Norway did not come forward with a response, according to Nettavisen.

It's hard what to say what Tesla plans to do, as the Elon Musk-led company dissolved its PR department last year.

Path Forward

Tesla will have to pay out by May 31 or appeal the case by June 17 to the Oslo Conciliation Board, according to Nettavisen.

"It is extremely ridiculous of Tesla as a large publicly traded company not to show up at the conciliation board when there are over 30 customers who have complained about it," CEO of consumer advocacy group Bilklager.no Torbjørn Stølen told the newspaper, as translated by Google Translate.

"It is downright ridiculous," he added.

READ MORE: Tesla is found guilty of throttling charging speed, asked to pay $16,000 to thousands of owners [Electrek]

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