South Korea fines Tesla $2.2 million for exaggerating electric car range

SEOUL — South Korea’s antitrust regulator announced a fine of 2.85 billion won ($2.2 million). Tesla for not telling customers about its short driving range Electric car at low temperatures.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said Tesla has exaggerated “the driving range of a car on a single charge, the fuel efficiency compared to a gasoline car, and the performance of a supercharger” on its official local website since August. said that From 2019 to recently.

The KFTC said in a statement on Tuesday that Tesla vehicles’ range will drop by up to 51% in cold weather compared to methods advertised online.

Tesla could not be reached immediately for comment.

Tesla offers winter driving tips on its website, such as preconditioning your vehicle with an external power source and monitoring your energy consumption with the latest Energy app, but the mileage in sub-zero temperatures isn’t as good as it could be. I didn’t mention loss.

In 2021, South Korean consumer group Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty said most EVs’ range will drop by up to 40% in cold temperatures where batteries need to be heated, citing data from the country’s environment ministry. and said Tesla has suffered the most. .

Last year, the KFTC fined Mercedes-Benz Korean unit 20.2 billion won for false advertising related to diesel passenger car emissions.

Challenges to EV performance in extreme temperatures are widely known, but EVs are popular in markets such as Norway, where four-fifths of the cars sold last year were battery-powered, led by Tesla.

A 2020 study of 4,200 connected EVs from all manufacturers by Canada-based telematics provider Geotab found that most models had similar decreases in cold-weather range. This is mainly because the battery is also used to heat the car for the driver and passengers.

At just over 20 degrees Celsius, the average EV was above the specified range, but at minus 15 degrees, the average EV was only 54% of the rated range.