Three Tesla owners in California are suing the electric vehicle company in a proposed class-action lawsuit Wednesday, accusing the company of falsely advertising the estimated driving ranges of its vehicles.
The lawsuit, which was initiated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and obtained by the Washington Examiner, contains the allegation that Tesla breached vehicle warranties and engaged in fraud and unfair competition.
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The lawsuit is one of many the automaker is facing amid heightened scrutiny over its claims of exaggerated driving ranges and the safety of its “Full Self-Driving” technology.
“Driving range on a single charge is undoubtedly a key feature that EV consumers rely on in the purchase decision,” Adam Edwards, an attorney representing the Tesla owners in the lawsuit, said in a statement. “Tesla’s decision to create a team to divert range-related complaints and cancel service appointments is unacceptable. Put simply, Tesla has a duty to deliver a product that performs as advertised.”
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
The lawsuit’s three plaintiffs cite occasions in which their Teslas didn’t achieve close to their advertised ranges, and had issued complaints to the company, but to no avail.
The complaint seeks class-action status to represent individuals who purchased a Tesla Model 3, a Model S, a Model Y, or a Model X vehicle, while seeking unspecified damages.
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The suit follows a Reuters investigation that found that Tesla created a special team to quash customer complaints about cars falling short of estimated ranges and to prevent them from bringing the cars in for service.
The proposed class-action lawsuit isn’t the only one on the books. A California Tesla owner filed a proposed class-action lawsuit back in April that accuses Tesla of violating the privacy of its customers by sharing highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ car cameras through an internal messaging system between 2019 and 2022. Tesla has denied those allegations.
