New Tesla Lawsuit - This Time The Reason Is Ludicrous

Norwegians must be out of things to sue over. News this week is that a group of Norwegians, 126 according to reports, have decided to file a class-action lawsuit against Tesla Motor Company because their cars are not fast enough. In this Tesla lawsuit, they claim that the horsepower that Tesla promises is not real, and that since it isn’t the cars they have are not fast enough.

Let’s see if we can think up a few things to sue Tesla Motors for off hand. First, the pants on fire production schedules the company has been using since before the Model S first arrived. Why is that a problem? Because putting down a deposit thinking you will see your car before the next ice age arrives is predicated on Tesla making a car or two when they find the spare time. Second, Tesla's autopilot allows for faster than speed limit driving. That was fine until a Model S on autopilot (reportedly speeding) ended up driving into the side of a truck. Had that truck been a school bus, Tesla would be done. Third, appropriating the Aston Martin design language for the Model S. If you are a Tesla fan you surely consider it Tesla’s design and will ignore the timeline.

These crazy folks from Norway are not the first to question whether the Model S P85D actually puts down the power it claims. They are just the first to file a lawsuit agianst Tesla Motors. If you want to read about the lacking horsepower topic, this story from Hybrid Cars sums up the debate, and we won’t steal their work by reproducing it in this story. Let’s just say that the basis for the claim is that on a dynamometer, the machine which measures horsepower; the P85 is lacking. Big time.

Since there are only 126 folks suing Tesla, one fun outcome would be for Elon Musk to offer to reimburse every person suing, and take back the cars no questions asked. They would be re-sold in a matter of days, and Elon would again pull a rabbit out of his hat. If Tesla opts to fight this, they may end up losing. It will depend upon if any jury can suffer through the explanation of what horsepower is. I spent five years in mechanical engineering studies to earn a degree on the topic, and can assure you the general public won’t be able to follow either side’s argument.

One thing that won’t help Tesla’s case is that, once again, Tesla’s P85 has performed very poorly in third party testing. Just this past week Car and Driver published its Lightning Lap issue in which it ran the Model S on a race track with other equally powerful cars. Let’s just say, it did rather badly. The reason? A lack of power.

One last viewpoint. The Model S with the go fast stuff the P85D has (it has been updated recently and has a new name) is CRAZY fast in a short drag race. So crazy fast, it does actually hang with cars with about 700hp in that type of short race. Maybe a jury seeing ten videos in a row of Model S cars beating Hellcats and Corvettes in races will sway some minds. The real question is does tesla Motors want to fight a lawsuit over this issue and possibly lose?

For more information on the lawsuit, please see our primary source for this story.