Seoul’s antitrust authority has fined Tesla $2.2 million for making claims about the range of its electric cars. Specifically, the American automaker would not have warned users about the lower performance in low temperature conditions
@
emilianoragoni
05 January
Owners of electric cars are well aware that with low temperatures the range decreases a lot. Car manufacturers have taken a number of measures to limit this loss of efficiency, ranging from pre-heating the accumulator, optimizing the BMS (Battery management system, battery management system), up to the installation of pump technology heat. Despite this, autonomy in the winter months is in any case subject to sharp drops, which affect practically all car manufacturers, including Tesla, which is among the best ever in terms of efficiency. A decline that did not go unnoticed by the South Korean authorities, who fined Tesla 2.85 billion won ($2.2 million) for failing to inform customers of the shorter range of its electric vehicles ( Ev) at low temperatures. The fine was imposed by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), South Korea’s antitrust authority.
Autonomy down by 50.5%
—
According to the Korean authority, the American company exaggerated about “the range of its cars on a single charge, their economy compared to petrol vehicles and the performance of its Superchargers”. In a statement, the KFTC declared that “the range of the US manufacturer’s cars drops in cold conditions by up to 50.5% compared to what is advertised online”. Tesla has not responded to this. On its website, Tesla provides tips for winter driving, such as using its app to monitor energy consumption, but doesn’t directly mention the loss of range in sub-zero temperatures.
Tesla isn’t the only one
—
In 2021, Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty, a group of South Korean consumers, stated that the range of most electric vehicles decreases by up to 40% in cold temperatures, when batteries need to be warmed up and then reach their maximum capacity to work well. optimal temperature, and Tesla is the one that suffers the most, citing data from the country’s Ministry of the Environment. Last year, the KFTC fined German automaker Mercedes and its Korean unit 20.2 billion won for misleading advertising linked to gas emissions from its diesel passenger vehicles. The challenge of EV fuel economy in extreme temperatures is widely known, even though EVs are popular in markets such as Norway, where four out of five vehicles sold in 2022 were battery-powered, with Tesla cars found to be among the most popular .
January 05, 2023 (change January 05, 2023 | 11:07)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED