South Korea fines Tesla $2.2mln for false advertisement of speed, cost
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South Korea intends to fine Elon Musk's company one million won on account of insufficient information regarding the cancellation policy.
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A Tesla car in South Korea. Source: CNBC.
South Korea's Fair Trade Commission confirmed on Tuesday through a statement that Tesla falsely advertised the driving range and charging speed of its EV cars, in addition, to fuel cost savings. The FTC has issued a fine of $2.2 million as a result.
The trade commission stated that the driving range of Tesla's vehicles is reduced by more than 50% during winter, adding that it intends to also fine Elon Musk's company one million won ($782) on account of insufficient information regarding cancellation policy. That violates South Korea's Electronic Commerce Act.
According to Bloomberg, Tesla's Korean-language website switched its ads as soon as an investigation into the matter took place in February. Notwithstanding that, on Monday, Tesla reported an 18% jump in deliveries over the past three months, but that record remained below Wall Street expectations.
That comes after South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol asked Musk to invest in the production of electric vehicles in his country amid Tesla's plans to build another electric car manufacturing gigafactory in Asia.
Musk said he considers South Korea as "one of the top investment candidate sites" and explained that before making a decision, a comprehensive review of the investment conditions of candidate countries in Asia, such as personnel, technology level, and production environment, will be conducted.
On a separate note, in December, a Tesla car in full-driving mode was responsible for a crash involving eight cars that left two children hospitalized.
A month earlier, more than 15,000 Tesla electric vehicles in Australia are retrieved due to malfunctioning backlights, which regulators say "may raise the risk of an accident resulting in serious injury or death."
The recall covers 15,914 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles sold in Australia in 2022. That was the company's second recall in less than a week, following the recall of over 1000 Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles on November 16 due to a steering defect.
