140,000 euros is the amount of the fine that Tesla will have to pay to this customer who discovered manufacturing defects on his Model S. Elon Musk’s company had in fact hidden from the driver that the car had suffered a accident and had been supposedly refurbished. The company has indicated that it plans to appeal the court ruling.
The story takes place in Tianjin, China. Tesla customer buys Model S, a priori new and therefore without apparent damage, for 379,700 yuan, or approximately 48,000 euros. Quickly, he notices many malfunctions and discovers that a portion of the car has been cut then glued. After filing a lawsuit, the Beijing court ordered the company to pay 1.1 million yuan, approximately 140,000 euros to the unlucky user.
China’s consumer protection law indeed obliges companies to reimburse 3 times the sum of a product if it has manufacturing defects. However, it seems that the car suffered an accident before it was put on sale and that some of its components required reinstallation, which Tesla allegedly did. failed to specify to the buyer. According to a court-ordered assessment, the company should have lowered the car price by 82,000 yuan (10,000 euros).
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Tesla refuses to pay the fine of 140,000 euros
For its part, Tesla formally denies that the Model S had manufacturing defects at the time of sale. However, she admits that the car was involved in a minor accident in January 2019 which required some repairs. The company said it will appeal the court ruling before it goes into effect. However, this is not the first time that Tesla has found itself on the dock in this kind of case.
As recently as two weeks ago, disgruntled customers took legal action over very serious design flaws in the Model X and Y. It is also known that a major security breach threatens Powerwall batteries. According to the manufacturer’s website, all cars “Have passed internal testing and may be subject to minor repairs prior to sale”. Second-hand vehicles, on the other hand, must not show “No evidence of structural repairs”.
Source: Bloomberg
