Tesla to Drop ‘Misleading’ Marketing in Germany Touting Model 3
Tesla has been promoting the car on its German-language website as being capable of reaping 5,000 euros in savings over 5 years.
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. agreed to change the way it advertises the Model 3 sedan in Germany by getting rid of fuel-savings claims the nation’s fair-competition watchdog said are misleading.
The company has been promoting the four-wheel-drive version of the car on its German-language website as being capable of reaping 5,000 euros ($5,654) in savings over five years off the car’s price tag of 56,380 euros. Wettbewerbszentrale, the Munich-based watchdog, says Tesla has agreed to drop such references to “price after estimated savings” as of March 20.
The offending bits of language are “arbitrary, lack transparency and infringe rules on actual and clear pricing” practices, according to the organization, which is a self-regulatory body with 1,200 member companies that agree to uphold voluntary fair-competition rules.
New registrations of Teslas in Germany totaled just 137 vehicles last month, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority. The company is looking to significantly increase deliveries in Europe by beginning shipments of the Model 3 this quarter. Germany offers subsidies to electric-car buyers, and Chancellor Angela Merkel is counting on a rapid uptake of low-emission vehicles from the start of the next decade.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Craig Trudell, Chester Dawson
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