Tesla Manipulated Driving Range... Secretly Formed Dedicated Complaint Team

Major US Media Including CNBC Report
"Persuasion to Avoid Visiting Service Centers"

U.S. electric vehicle company Tesla has been reported to have manipulated driving range figures to exaggerate them beyond reality, and created a dedicated complaint handling team to quell consumer dissatisfaction.

Tesla exaggerates 'driving range' to increase sales volume

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to major foreign media including U.S. economic outlet CNBC on the 27th (local time), Tesla established a complaint handling team called the 'Diversion Team' last summer in Las Vegas.

This team was organized to suppress complaints related to Tesla vehicle driving ranges.

As complaints about discrepancies between Tesla car advertisements and actual driving ranges surged, the number of owners visiting service centers increased sharply. The team was secretly created to cancel these customers' appointments.

In electric vehicles, the remaining battery charge and the corresponding driving range are displayed as numerical values.

An anonymous source claimed, "Tesla manipulated the software to exaggerate the driving range shown on the dashboard beyond the actual range." For example, when the battery is at 80%, the actual driving range might be about 300 km, but Tesla displayed a higher number of kilometers.

While it is common to research and develop technologies such as heat pumps to improve electric vehicle battery performance, Tesla reportedly chose to deceive consumers instead of installing such heat pumps.

This was a marketing strategy considering that longer driving ranges lead to higher vehicle sales, and it was reportedly ordered by CEO Elon Musk.

To quell complaints about driving range... Celebrations upon successful suppression

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Consultants on this dedicated team were trained to respond to related complaints by saying, "The driving range is a predicted value, not an actual measurement," and that the battery can deteriorate depending on environmental conditions and time.

They also revealed that if the owner did not answer the phone, the case would be closed, and for answered calls, they were instructed to finish within five minutes.

Although the specific composition or information about this 'Diversion Team' has not been disclosed, when owners made service center reservations through apps, these complaints were routed to the Diversion Team.

Complaints related to driving range reached up to 2,000 per week, and the Diversion Team reportedly canceled about 750 reservations weekly.

Sources explained that managers told the dedicated team that they saved about $1,000 each time a customer's reservation was canceled.

Tesla's driving range performance at low temperatures only 49.5%... '2.8 billion KRW fine'

Foreign media also reported that Tesla was fined by the Korea Fair Trade Commission earlier this year for the driving range being less than half of what was advertised.

In January, the Fair Trade Commission imposed a fine of 2.852 billion KRW on Tesla Korea for discrepancies between the displayed driving range and the actual driving range, including reduced winter driving range of Tesla electric vehicles.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.