Tesla overstated driving range readout in cars: Report

Elon Musk-led Tesla reportedly exaggerated the driving range estimates in its electric vehicles and later ignored several complaints by cancelling service appointments of EV owners, according to a report by Reuters.

"The automaker last year became so inundated with driving-range complaints that it created a special team to cancel owners' service appointments," the news wire says in a report.

The world's largest automaker in terms of market capitalisation reported a net income of $2.7 billion in the second quarter, up 20% from the corresponding period a year ago. Tesla's revenue stood at $24.9 billion, nearly 50% more than $16.9 billion in Q2 2022.

The carmaker is looking to set up a factory in India that would produce low-cost EVs. In June, Musk said he is confident that Tesla will be in India as soon as humanly possible. These comments came after the Tesla CEO met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York.

"I would like to thank the Prime Minister for his support and hopefully we will be able to announce something in the not-so-distant future. We don't want to jump the gun on an announcement but I think it is quite likely that there will be a significant investment in our relationship with India," Musk said, calling his meeting with PM Modi "excellent".

The world's richest man said he is actually incredibly excited about the future of India. "I think India has more promise than any large country in the world," he said.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi really cares about India because he is pushing us to make significant investments in India which is something that we intend to do," the Tesla CEO said.

"In a nutshell, it was a fantastic meeting with the Prime Minister. I like him quite a lot. He visited our factory several years ago. We’ve kind of known each other for a while," he added.

"He really wants to do the right thing for India. He wants to open, he wants to be supportive of new companies and at the same time make sure it accrues to India’s advantage which is his job," Musk explained.

Musk, who called himself a "fan of Modi" said India has a potential for sustainable energy generation through wind and solar primarily. India is great for solar, he said.

"I think the amount of land area you actually need to generate electricity to power India is very small. It is probably 1-2% of the land area of India. So it’s very doable. Then you need to pair that with stationary battery packs and then you need electric vehicles and then you have a sustainable energy future. This is a lower-cost way to go and that may surprise people," Musk explained.