Some Tesla owners charge Elon Musk is a greedy, cheating liar, so they sue

A group of Tesla owners who feel deceived that their electric cars don't get the range they were promised last week sued Elon Musk and his family trust for taking advantage of them.

In their suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, the purchasers - who include Boston College's new women's soccer coach - say that to try to satiate his unquenchable hunger for more profits, Musk not only got his car company to advertise false ranges per charge but had his engineers screw with the dashboard mileage estimator to display falsely optimistic range estimates and then, when buyers complained, set up a "diversion team" to shut them up. They are hoping to be named lead plaintiffs in a class action against the mogul.

To enrich himself and the Musk Personal Entities, Musk for years made repeated false claims about the ranges Tesla vehicles could travel. And, at Musk's direction, Tesla claimed that its Model S Plaid, Model 3 Long Range, Model X Plaid and Model Y Long Range vehicles could travel, respectively, 396, 358, 333, and 330 miles on a single charge. These false representations were made directly at the point of purchase on Tesla's website, right before consumers clicked "ORDER NOW" - which is the primary if not exclusive way of purchasing a Tesla vehicle. In fact, the false range figure is the first thing a consumer was presented with at the point of purchase.

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Among other things, the range meter purports to inform drivers approximately how far their vehicles can travel on the remaining battery charge. Once customers realized that their cars weren't performing as Musk claimed, Tesla was inundated with service requests complaining about the cars' mileage. But Musk knew that servicing the cars would be pointless because the vehicles were working as designed - to provide lower driving ranges than advertised. So to avoid having to waste resources and having the lies exposed, Musk implemented a "Diversion Team."

The Diversion Team was designed to perpetuate Musk's fraud by preventing customers from having their vehicles serviced for range-related issues. For example, when a customer scheduled a service appointment to address the vehicle's driving range, a member of the Diversion Team would conduct a "remote diagnostic" and, regardless of the results, tell the customer that the vehicle was fine and cancel the appointment. The Diversion Team further told customers that the stated range was a "prediction" rather than an actual measurement and falsely suggested that the range issues were the result of the batteries naturally degrading over time. The Diversion Team did not tell the truth: the ranges that Tesla's vehicles could travel were exaggerated (at Musk's direction), and the range meter deliberately misstated driving ranges (also at Musk's direction). Indeed, the whole point of the "Diversion Team" was to divert attention from Musk's deception. Chris Watkins: Chris is a college soccer coach who purchased a Tesla in 2020 in the state of Washington and now resides in Massachusetts.

Among the plaintiffs is Chris Watkins, who came here in December to become head coach of the BC women's soccer team.

Watkins, according to the complaint, bought a Tesla in 2020, when he was head coach at Gonzaga, in Spokane, WA.

His vehicle's driving range is far less than its advertised range and far less than the range displayed on the range meter when fully charged. Had Chris known the car's range was exaggerated and that Musk manipulated the range meter to show a false range, he would not have purchased the vehicle or would have paid considerably less.

Also listed as a plaintiff: Sham Sahni's Global Lease Group of Waltham, which bought a Tesla in 2022, and which the suit says is equally put out by Tesla's and Musk's deceit.

The suit specifically alleges violations of consumer-protection laws in the states where the plaintiffs live or do business. It was filed by a lawyer in Framingham and by a law firm in Atlanta that normally defends corporations against class-action suits.

Complete complaint (7M PDF).