Tesla Motors may get into trouble in Norway as the Consumer Council there has required the U.S. firm to provide a clarification over accusations of false advertising. The case is about the way in which the firm has calculated the horsepower of its P85D Model S.
Tesla retracts its claim on hp
Tesla has tried to defend the horsepower it advertised, but in real life it could not be met with any consistency. The case against Tesla came to light on Tuesday evening, and the credit for it goes to Fred Lambert of Electrek.
Not much is known of the case for now, but a consumer council spokesperson, Ingeborg Flones, informed a local news outlet, “There have been a steady stream of complaints and they continue to come. Right now, the Consumer Council works as a neutral mediator between the parties. We try to find a solution. This process is not public.”
Until recently, the EV firm have been claiming in its Model S P85D advertisements that it has 691 horsepower. However, in the last few weeks Tesla took back its earlier claim, and stated that the actual horsepower of the car is just 463 HP. This angered P85D Model S customers in Norway, and 150 of them have complained to Tesla, after which the country’s consumer protection agency got involved in the case.
Not good for Tesla’s image
On the Tesla Motors club, there are many threads from Model S owners who are agitated with the company over the false claims. Back in August, a thread included an open letter to CEO Elon Musk regarding the horsepower issue. The thread had 70 pages of comments and discussion as of Wednesday morning after the news of the Norwegian Consumer Council mediation in the hp case broke.
No additional info on the horsepower problem of Tesla is available for now, but chances are that more complaints will crop up from places other than Norway.
Tesla is a major global brand today, and this kind of bickering can negatively impact the satisfaction of its customers. Recently, Consumer Reports conducted a survey in which 97% of respondents who were Model S owners said they would buy the car again. It is obvious that the U.S. firm would want to keep this strong customer loyalty, and therefore, it should handle this hp issue very carefully.
