Electric Vehicle maker Tesla is facing a lawsuit from German consumer group vzbv over privacy concerns and what it argues are misleading adverts related to CO2 emissions. 

The group says that Tesla made misleading statements on how much carbon-dioxide emissions consumers save when purchasing a Tesla electric vehicle. They also say that the car’s sentry mode, which records its surroundings, also violates data protection laws. 

vzbv argues that Tesla advertises its Model 3 on the Internet with CO 2 emissions of "0 g/km". However, under emission credits between car makers, vehicles from other manufacturers are allowed to emit what Tesla cars save in terms of CO 2 and Tesla makes significant profit from this. According to the company, it made $1.6 billion in 2020 alone from the sale of "emission credits". However, Tesla only provided information about the sale of the emission rights on page 30 of the English-language environmental compatibility report, which could be downloaded from the website.

There is a growing view in the industry that car makers could be heading towards a new “Diesel-gate” scandal over claims they are making on CO2. Many consumers are buying larger SUV type electric vehicles believing that they will benefit the environment. However, while these vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions, significant CO2 will be generated through power generation to charge the batteries, unless this is from totally renewable sources. In Ireland only around 30% of power comes from renewables, meaning 70% of the power it takes to charge an EV generates CO2. In addition to this, SUV EVs will generally be responsible for three times more CO2 emissions in the production process. This means a SUV EV will never be more CO2 efficient than a smaller petrol car in its lifetime.