Image Courtesy: Twitter
The antitrust watchdog in South Korea announced that it would fine Tesla Inc. 2.85 billion won ($2.2 million) for neglecting to inform its consumers that the driving range of its electric cars (EVs) is reduced in cold weather.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) alleged that Tesla inflated on its official local website from August 2019 until recently the “driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles, as well as the performance of its Superchargers.”
The KFTC said in a statement on Tuesday that the driving range of the American EV manufacturer’s vehicles drops in cold weather by up to 50.5% compared to how they are advertised online.
Tesla could not be reached for comment right away.
Tesla does not mention the reduction in driving range in below-freezing conditions on its website, but it does provide winter driving recommendations including pre-conditioning cars using external power sources and utilising its updated Energy app to monitor energy consumption.
The driving range of most EVs decreases by up to 40% in cold weather when batteries need to be heated, with Tesla suffering the most, according to Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty, a South Korean consumer group, which used data from the nation’s environment ministry in 2021.
The German automaker Mercedes-Benz and its Korean subsidiary were fined 20.2 billion won by the KFTC in 2017 for misleading advertising about the gas emissions of its diesel passenger cars.
