Tesla has agreed to pay 1.5 million dollars to put an end to a lawsuit brought by some American owners of Model S, following a software update, had noticed a drop in autonomy and maximum charging power. The update, in fact, had limited the maximum battery voltage.
According to court documents, the problem affected 1,743 cars in America. $ 410,000 in miscellaneous legal fees will be deducted from the total amount. This means that each owner will receive approximately $ 625 in compensation. The lawsuit was filed in August 2019.
The technical limitation, however, has long since been resolved by Tesla through a series of updates. According to attorneys for the Tesla Model S owners who brought the lawsuit, the maximum battery voltage limitation was only temporary. For about 10 months it was 10%. A first update had restored the maximum voltage by 3% and in March 2020 an update had arrived that had gone to restore the correct functioning of the accumulator.
According to Tesla, of the 1,743 Model Ss involved, 1,552 had full battery voltage recovery. For 57 specimens, however, it was necessary to replace the accumulator. The remaining cars are expected to return to normal soon. The question, however, may not really be closed. Tesla agreed to pay compensation but the judge set a December 9 hearing to discuss the settlement.
The problem, please note, concerns some older Model S models with an 85 kWh battery pack. Without any warning, following an update, the owners had noticed a decline in autonomy and charging capacity. At the time, the automaker had “defended itself” by saying that the changes were made to protect the battery and improve longevity. The car owners obviously did not like what happened and for this reason, several lawsuits had been started, even outside of America.
In fact, just recently the news had emerged that a court in Norway had condemned the company of Elon Musk to compensate the owners of its electricity in the country affected by the same problem. Had Tesla warned its customers early on the need to make these changes, it would likely have avoided far fewer lawsuits. The real problem of the American carmaker is its ability to communicate with customers.
