Tesla wants to compensate 1,743 American customers of $625 for an update that reduced the battery voltage of certain Model S cars. As a result, the cars charged less quickly. The compensation is part of a settlement proposal.
As part of the settlement proposal, according to Business Insider, Tesla will pay 526 euros to Americans who owned or leased a Model S between May 2019 and September 2020. These customers must have ‘experienced’ that Tesla lowered the battery voltage with the update. It is not clear how many customers are involved in total. The settlement proposal is part of a class action lawsuit; the owners of 1743 cars participated in this.
Tesla has to pay a total of $1.5 million, of which $410,000 for legal costs and lawyers. Only the Model S is mentioned in the proposal, according to Business Insider. The Model X would have the same problems. A judge will consider the settlement proposal in December.
The lawsuit revolves around an over-the-air car update from May 2019. This lowered the battery voltage by up to ten percent, in order to “protect the battery and make it last longer”. This would have caused cars to take longer to charge and the range was reduced. Last year, Tesla released an update that was supposed to fix the problem. Once owners drive their cars more, the tension slowly rises again.
Meanwhile, 1552 cars would have the maximum voltage again, says Tesla. Furthermore, 57 cars would have received a new battery pack. Earlier, a mediation council in Oslo ruled that Tesla must reimburse customers in Norway for the same battery problems. However, this concerns a much higher amount; every customer in Norway would be entitled to the converted 13,353 euros.