Norway is basically the land of Tesla thanks to a massive effort by the government to incentivize EV sales, with Elon Musk’s company gladly supplying the cars. But Tesla may have to give something back to its Norwegian customers thanks to a dispute over the Model S P85D’s advertised power output.
http://jalopnik.com/tesla-model-s-…
Over a year ago, Norway’s Consumer Council began looking into what is now over 150 consumer complaints over the listed power outputs Tesla advertised for its Model S P85D.
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Electrek reports that the issue comes down to the power output of the motors versus what the Model S can actually put down through its wheels:
The issue revolved around the way Tesla was listing the power of its motors for the Model S P85D, which has two motors. When first introducing the vehicle, Tesla was marketing the vehicle as having a combined motor output of 691 hp (467 in the back and 224 in the front).
While those are indeed the correct outputs of each motor, the vehicle was never able to achieve those numbers due to several other limitations than only the combined potential output of the motors.
Tesla claimed that they always made it clear that the numbers were for the motors and not the vehicle itself. The automaker also highlighted that it didn’t actually change the actual performance ratings of the Model S P85D, but some owners still felt deceived.
Not long after the issue arose, Tesla changed the way it is listing the power output of its cars.
A recently released verdict reveals that the Norwegian Consumer Disputes Commission is now siding with the owners’ claims against Tesla, formally requesting that 50,000 Norwegian Krones be paid to P85D owners as a “price reduction.” That’s about 6,000 U.S. dollars, multiplied by a factor of over 150 claims.
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Tesla has an opportunity to appeal the Commission’s verdict, and a spokesperson told Electrek that “the [Norwegian] Consumer Council previously resolved these issues in Tesla’s favor,” with some third party tests finding the P85D to even be faster than claimed 0 to 60 times.
The owners’ confusion over how the power from the motors translates into actual performance is understandable, but I’m not entirely certain they’re owned anything near $6,000 each for figures that technically weren’t wrong, just perhaps misleading.
The issue comes down to the interpretation of the performance of the vehicle in relation to its value. Owners feel they paid too much for performance they thought they were getting but are not, and for now, the Norwegian government is agreeing with them. Don’t be surprised to see Tesla appeal.
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