South Korea’s antitrust regulator is investigating Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) over claims the electric car maker over-egged the range of its batteries, in the latest setback for Elon Musk's flagship company.
Yonhap news agency reported yesterday the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) sent a letter to Tesla saying it exaggerated the mileage on some of its models, including the Model 3, whose Long Range version is reported to deliver 272 miles.
The regulator said the alleged misreporting of mileage was in violation of the Act on Fair Labelling and Advertising.
The latest news comes after the recall of 579,000 Tesla vehicles after it was found a ‘Boombox’ function could play sounds over an external speaker like a bleating goat and fart noises, obscuring audible warnings for pedestrians.
Tesla chief executive officer Musk tweeted the “fun police” forced Tesla to recall the vehicles, after the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the feature may increase the risk of a collision.
Tesla’s share price is down more than 27% since the start of February.
Earlier, it was announced Musk had donated $5.7bn worth of Tesla shares to charity in November.