The plaintiff in the lawsuit said he bought a used 2020 Model Y Tesla vehicle with 36,772 miles on it. He said he started to notice "peculiar patterns” in mileage while the vehicle was continually having problems with its suspension. He claimed his daily driving habits should have amounted to about 20 miles per day, but his Tesla’s odometer was registering an average of 72 miles per day. As a result, he said Basic Warranty expired way ahead of schedule.
The lawsuit claims that Tesla’s odometer system relies on “predictive algorithms, energy consumption metrics and driver behavior multipliers that manipulate and misrepresent the actual mileage travelled by Tesla vehicles.” And by doing so, the automaker is accelerating the rate of depreciation and the expiration of warranties for its vehicles.
“By tying warranty limits and lease mileage caps to inflated ‘odometer’ readings, Tesla increases repair revenue, reduces warranty obligations and compels consumers to purchase extended warranties prematurely,” the lawsuit reads.