Oliver Haslam·

Tesla Agrees To Pay Model S Owners $625 Each Over Battery Throttling Claims

Tesla has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a claim that a software update from May 2019 reduced the maximum charge of some Model S cars. The number means that $625 will be given to the owners of 1,743 Model S vehicles.

According to a Business Insider report, the software update stopped batteries from charging to their full capacity. It’s also claimed that the charging speed was reduced as well.

Plaintiff David Rasmussen filed the class-action lawsuit in August 2019 on behalf of himself and other Model S and X drivers who he said were impacted by the update. Rasmussen claimed in the suit that the software update reduced the range and charging speed of his Model S.

The May 2019 software update was released following reports of two cars catching fire, with Tesla saying that the update was designed to “further protect the battery and improve battery longevity.”

This seems to have been managed by reducing the battery voltage of some cars by as much as 10% for a period of three months. The next seven months saw that reduced to 7%.

Tesla released another software update in March 2020 that undid the changes “over time.” Tesla even went so far as to replace the batteries in 57 vehicles as part of the debacle.

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