Published : Feb. 15, 2022 - 16:58
Tesla's manufacturing plant in California (Yonhap)
South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has sent a review report to US electric vehicle maker Tesla to notify its conclusion of an investigation showing that Tesla allegedly fiddled with battery performance in low temperatures.
The report notified Tesla of violating advertisement laws by exaggerating the performance of its Model 3 vehicles. Tesla advertised that its Model 3 vehicles can drive up to 446 kilometers once fully charged, without informing customers that its driving range can decrease about 40 percent in cold temperatures below minus 7 degrees Celsius.
The FTC is set to hold a general meeting to decide on the sanctions against the company.
Tesla could be slapped with a more than 10 billion won ($8.34 million) fine as the FTC can fine up to 2 percent of its sales, according to reports and insiders. Tesla Korea’s sales in 2021 is estimated to have reached 1.1 trillion won.
Tesla has reportedly refuted FTC’s report. saying that it is natural that battery performance differs by the temperature it performs in. The company claims it is unfair to penalize them when other carmakers also advertise battery performance based on warm temperatures.
The FTC is also expected to fine Tesla for not returning deposits to customers that canceled online purchases.
Local customers are required to pay 100,000 won as a deposit when purchasing Tesla cars online, but it is not refundable, even if customers cancel their orders before the cars are out. The FTC sees such policy as a violation of customers’ right to withdraw purchases, according to reports.
By Hong Yoo (
yoohong@heraldcorp.com)