The order to inflate the driving range displayed on the cars was given by Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk around 10 years ago a report by Reuters found Thursday – the latest Tesla feature to face scrutiny. As a result, the company was inundated with complaints and service appointments from drivers who expected a longer driving range, several sources told Reuters.
To suppress the volume of these complaints the automaker created a secret “Diversion Team” in Las Vegas to cancel appointments. The team was tracked by the number of appointments they diverted each day and often closed hundreds of cases a week. In most cases, the cars likely did not need to be repaired; their performance had merely been overstated.
