Tesla faces new legal trouble over alleged odometer manipulation

Tesla faces a new legal headache, this time due to alleged manipulation of its vehicle odometers. A group of the brand's California-based customers have filed a lawsuit over the alleged abnormal increase in their vehicles' mileage, as one of them points out.In a report from the American media The Street.

Unfortunately, fraudulent odometer manipulation is not uncommon in the used vehicle world. In some cases, used car sellers subtract mileage from the cars for sale to increase their value, a practice that is completely reprehensible and punishable from a legal standpoint. In this sense, it is completely shocking and surreal that a manufacturer would manipulate the odometers of its cars, as claimed by the customers who filed the lawsuit in California. The explanation lies in Tesla's alleged interest in speeding up the expiration of its car's warranty and thus avoiding the manufacturer having to respond to any potential breakdowns or incidents.

Tesla cars offer a full four-year warranty, or until the car reaches 80,000 kilometers, a figure comparable to that of other major manufacturers. This system has evolved little in the last 30 or 40 years, beyond digitalization and the emergence of more modern electronic sensors that do away with the hard-wired connections of early 20th-century models.

Tesla customers who have filed the lawsuit against the brand claim that it uses a different system than other manufacturers, based on a predictive algorithm that evaluates energy consumption and driving style to generate the car's mileage on its journeys. Independent GPS systems and vehicles from other brands record around 90 kilometers.