By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Tesla faces a project for collective appeal saying that it accelerates the odometers on its electric vehicles so that they fall more quickly, which avoids the company of Elon Musk to have to pay the repairs.
The applicant Nyree Hinton allegedly alleged that the readings of the Tesla odometer reflect energy consumption, the behavior of drivers and “predictive algorithms” rather than real mileage.
He said that the Odometer on the Y 2020 model, which he bought in December 2022 with 36,772 miles at the chronometer run at least 15% quickly, on the basis of his other vehicles and the history of driving, and for a while, he said that he was traveling 72 miles per day when he led 20.
Hinton, a resident in Los Angeles, said it had exhaled his basic warranty by 50,000 miles long before the scheduled date, leaving him a suspension repair bill of $ 10,000 that he thought Tesla should cover.
“Linking the warranty limits and the rental mileage ceilings with” odometer “inflated readings, Tesla increases repair income, reduces warranty obligations and obliges consumers to buy prolongedly premature guarantees,” said the complaint.
Tesla and her lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Thursday, but denied all the important allegations in the trial. The company based in Austin, Texas, does not have a media relations office.
Hinton requests compensatory and punitive damages for Tesla drivers in California, potentially encompassing more than a million vehicles, according to court documents.
Tesla moved her trial this month at the Los Angeles Federal Court of a state court of this city.
The automaker also faced a dispute accusing him of inflating the vehicle driving ranges.
In March 2024, a federal judge in Oakland, California, said that drivers in this case were to continue their complaints in individual arbitrations, and not a collective appeal.
The case is Hinton V Tesla Inc et al, US District Court, central district of California, n ° 25-02877.
(Report by Jonathan Stempel in New York; edition by Marguerita Choy)
