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Source: Tesla

The French Ministry of the Economy has found that Tesla violated the law in several ways related to “deceptive business practices,” and has ordered the company to comply in 4 months or face a fine for every day it does not.

The investigation started in 2023, in response to several reports through France’s consumer complaint service SignalConso.

It concluded today, and French authorities from the DGCCRF (Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention) division of the Ministry of the Economy found several examples of ways that Tesla had misled customers or otherwise failed to comply with French consumer protection laws.

A summary of the ruling in French is available here, and here are the bullet points via browser translation:

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  • Sales contracts without date or deadline or place of delivery of the vehicle and not mentioning payment on credit;
  • Payments required before the end of the withdrawal period enjoyed by the consumer when he finances his purchase with an assigned credit;
  • Absence of receipt valid in the event of partial cash payment;
  • Misleading business practices regarding the fully autonomous driving capacity of TESLA vehicles, the availability of certain options and vehicle trade-in offers;
  • Failure to refund within the deadlines of orders for which consumers have exercised their right of withdrawal;
  • Lack of prior information on delivery methods and in particular its place;

France has given Tesla 4 months to comply with its order. If it doesn’t, France will fine the company 50,000 euros ($58k USD) per day.

Most of these bullet points deal with the ordering and delivery process, and it seems that French authorities took issue with the haphazard nature in which Tesla vehicle deliveries can often happen. They took issue with Tesla’s incomplete sales contracts, sudden and/or repeatedly changing delivery times or locations (and the value of trade-in offers), and failure to refund deposits in a timely manner.

But the meatiest bullet point there is the one about “misleading business practices,” especially given this weekend’s news of Tesla’s Robotaxi launch in Austin.

France finds that Tesla lied about FSD

French authorities found that Tesla had misled customers “regarding the fully autonomous driving capacity of TESLA vehicles.”

Since 2015, Tesla has sold some sort of partial automation to the public. This started in the form of Autopilot, which was released in the US in late 2015 and focused on highway driving only (though it came later to France than the US). More recently, Tesla’s focus has been on Full Self-Driving, or FSD, which is more capable than Autopilot and works on surface streets as well as highways.

Tesla has sold FSD software for various prices over the years, as high as $15,000. It currently sells “Capacité de conduite entirément autonome” in France for 7,500 Euros.

The problem is: this software does not, in fact, drive you entirely autonomously. It is, at the moment, a “level 2” driver assist function, which still requires a driver in the driver’s seat to take full responsibility for the vehicle. Higher levels, 3 and above, could be considered “self-driving,” where the car takes responsibility at certain times, and above level 4, there’s no requirement for a driver to even be in the driver’s seat.

Another wrinkle is that even the driver-assist version of FSD is currently not active in France. There has been a long process to bring FSD to Europe (here’s a recent report about how Tesla used a Dutch loophole to approve Autopilot in the first place), but it’s still not complete.

So, everyone who has bought the system in France has not yet been able to use it. Even if they could use the version that the US has, it would still not qualify as fully self driving.

In addition to this, Tesla has made several statements over the years suggesting FSD’s capabilities will be greater than they currently are. For example, in 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said “if you buy a Tesla today, I believe you are buying an appreciating asset – not a depreciating asset.” He said this on the premise that FSD software would be so valuable that the price of cars that had it would skyrocket. In fact, he said it wouldn’t even be worth it for Tesla to sell cars anymore, because they’d be more valuable to use to make money as autonomous taxis.

Musk even promised that you, the customer, would be able to send out your car as an autonomous taxi to make you money, something that Tesla is now doing, but still not allowing customers to do. He has continued making the same promise, as recently as a few hours before this weekend’s Robotaxi launch.

Elsewhere in France, Tesla is also facing a lawsuit by a group of French Tesla owners who want to get out of their leases early due to Musk’s recent unwise political activity turning their vehicles into “far-right totems.”

Electrek’s Take

The complaints should not be particularly surprising to those who have followed Tesla for some time.

Mostly, they reflect the haphazard nature of Tesla’s vehicle ordering and delivery process which we have come to… love? hate? let’s go with “understand” over the years.

While Tesla does eschew dealerships and has made the vehicle ordering process much simpler in many ways, it’s also true that if there’s ever any reason for deviation from the plan, it’s pretty easy for customers to fall through the cracks and have little recourse. So, the reports of incomplete paperwork, rapidly-changing delivery times and so on should sound familiar to those of us who’ve been around for a while.

Same goes for failure to refund – Tesla has long tied a “reservation fee” to new vehicle announcements, which is often said to be fully refundable at any time. Some customers have had difficulty getting those refunds in a timely manner or at all.

The most interesting part about this order is how sweeping it is. Rather than finding fault in a single practice, it dings Tesla for a litany of issues that have been issues for a long time. Unlike the feckless enforcement that we often see in the US, France seems serious.

The fine is also substantial, but for one of the largest companies in the world (by market cap, anyway), it does seem absorbable. While ~$5 million per quarter is a fair chunk of change, it’s nothing compared to Tesla’s Q1 revenue of $19.3 billion or profit of $409 million.

But, given drastically falling sales in France, maybe it’s enough compared to the profits Tesla gets out of that territory. At a current sales rate of a few thousand cars per quarter, and given Tesla’s current ~2% profit margin and assuming an average selling price of somewhere around ~$60k, a fine of $5 million per quarter would basically eliminate any profits for the company from France.

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Volvo CEO: electric wave will kill a few Western automakers – which ones?

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2 hours ago

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September 11, 2025

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Volvo CEO: electric wave will kill a few Western automakers - which ones?

First-Volvo-ES90-EV

Volvo’s long-time CEO, Håkan Samuelsson, is returning to help the brand and openly admits that the rapid electrification of the auto industry will result in a few Western automotive brands going out of business.

Samuelsson led Volvo from 2012 to 2022, when he retired on top after a successful public offering.

However, Volvo’s stock has been sliding since his exit, and he recently accepted a 2-year contract to lead Volvo again as the company tries to find a permanent new leader.

He gave an interview with Bloomberg this week, in which he stated that Volvo remains firmly committed to electrification despite some pullbacks.

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Samuelsson doesn’t mince his words. He understands that the EV transition is difficult on the industry and China’s forceful push toward electrification at a global scale is putting pressure on Western automakers.

He believes that the industry will be fully electric in about 10 years and that some brands won’t survive the transition:

The industry will be electric — there’s no turning back. It may take a bit longer in some regions, but the direction is clear. In (about) 10 years, cars will all be electric and they will be lower cost.

There will be new dominant players, exactly as Ford, GM, Toyota and Volkswagen were in the old world. In the new world, there will be two or three very strong Chinese brands. That makes the room for the old ones tougher. So this will trigger a (wave of) restructuring. Some companies will adapt to new circumstances and survive. Others will not.

He didn’t specify which ones he thinks will not survive, but he is hopeful Volvo will be among those that will remain.

The CEO is also encouraged by the connection with Geely, which has been making great progress in electrification and owns a majority stake in the Swedish automaker.

However, the connection is also causing Volvo some issues, as they have been threatened with a sales ban in the US due to their Chinese ownership.

Electrek’s Take

I think he is right. I’ve been saying it for years, but this is the kind of disruption that companies don’t survive.

It is a huge industry and it moves slowly, especially for some legacy automakers. When you have new startups, such as Tesla and Rivian, which are more nimble, it is genuinely disruptive.

And now that Chinese companies, with their incredible manufacturing pace, are getting involved, as seen with BYD and Xiaomi, it is putting a lot of pressure on existing players.

However, it’s still not clear which ones will and won’t survive.

I’d love to know your best guests of who you think won’t survive the EV transition in the comment section below.


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Hyundai is now delaying its EV battery plant that was raided by ICE

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5 hours ago

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September 11, 2025

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Hyundai is now delaying its EV battery plant that was raided by ICE

Hyundai-delaying-EV-battery-plant

Construction on Hyundai’s electric vehicle battery site that was raided by ICE last week is now facing more setbacks. Hyundai is delaying work at the EV battery plant as the detained workers are expected to fly home on Thursday.

Hyundai is delaying its EV battery plant raided by ICE

During an interview on Thursday, Hyundai’s CEO José Muñoz announced the site will be delayed by at least a few months following the raid.

“This is going to give us minimum two to three months delay, because now all these people want to get back,” he said. Hyundai needs to fill the positions, and as Muñoz explained, “for the most part, those people are not in the US.”

The sudden announcement comes after federal agents raided the battery plant site on September 4, detaining 475 workers.

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Hyundai co-owns the plant with LG Energy Solutions, which is set to supply batteries to its nearby production site, the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA).

Although a charter plane is waiting in Atlanta to fly the workers home, the raid is already sparking backlash. South Korean ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-woong warned that “The economic activities of our companies investing in the US and the rights and interests of our nationals must not be unfairly violated.”

Hyundai-EV-plant-raided-ICE
Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America EV plant (Source: Peter Johnson/ Electrek)

The raid occurred just days after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with President Trump at the White House, pledging to invest another $150 billion in the US, including a new EV battery plant.

However, after videos and images showed the detained workers shackled before being transferred onto buses, the operation is fueling outrage among South Koreans and will likely have bigger economic implications.

Hyundai-EV-battery-plant-raid
The new 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 at a Tesla Supercharger (Source: Hyundai)

Hyundai and LG’s battery plant is just one of 20 sites under construction in the US by a South Korean company. Several LG Energy Solutions’ construction sites have already been disrupted, while others fear similar crackdowns may follow.

Hyundai currently builds the new IONIQ 5 and larger IONIQ 9 electric SUVs at the production plant. The site in total spans about 3,000 acres, including the assembly facility, EV battery plants, and various other parts plants.

Electrek’s Take

The raid on Hyundai’s plant was frankly an embarrassment and will likely have much bigger impacts. Hyundai pledged to invest $12.6 billion in Georgia, creating 8,500 new jobs, marking the state’s largest economic project to date.

A Center for Automotive Research report found that Hyundai’s EV plant would generate over 50,000 new jobs indirectly, including suppliers and joint battery ventures.

Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants to arrest and deport as many “illegal” immigrants as possible, but he also wants to bring manufacturing back to the US.

The Hyundai plant raid is just another setback for the US auto industry. It has put thousands of new jobs and billions in investments at risk. It ultimately puts the US further behind China, South Korea, and others who are quickly emerging as powerhouses with advanced new batteries, software, and other EV tech.

Trump’s raid on the Hyundai plant could give a new meaning to the “Trump Slump” as fear spreads over similar crackdowns.

Source: Bloomberg


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Bluetti’s new Apex 300 station + bundles get up to $2,377 in exclusive savings, Lectric Endless Summer e-bike Sale, Aiper, more

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5 hours ago

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September 11, 2025

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Bluetti's new Apex 300 station + bundles get up to ,377 in exclusive savings, Lectric Endless Summer e-bike Sale, Aiper, more

We have exclusive discounts leading today’s Green Deals, with up to $2,377 savings available for our readers on Bluetti’s new Apex 300 Portable Power Station and its bundles starting from $1,529. We also have Lectric’s Endless Summer Sale that is taking up to $720 off its e-bike bundles, like the largest package to date on the brand’s XPress 750 Long-Range Commuter e-bikes that are getting $424 in FREE gear at $1,299, among all the other models. From there, we’ve got Aiper’s latest IrriSense Smart Sprinkler Irrigation System back at a second-ever $500 low, as well as a new low price on a Greenworks commercial-grade chainsaw, a compact Solo Stove fire pit, and two one-day only tool deals waiting for you below. Plus, there are all the hangover deals collected at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s Anker SOLIX Fan Fest Sale – now with bonus 5% savings – and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Save up to an exclusive $2,377 on Bluetti’s new expansive Apex 300 power station and bundles starting from $1,529

Bluetti is having an Anniversary Power Week Sale that is taking up to 53% off power stations, but it’s getting all the better for our readers who want to score the brand’s new Apex 300 power station or its bundles thanks to exclusive codes we’ve been provided. Things start with Bluetti’s base Apex 300 Portable Power Station at $1,529.10 shipped, after using the exclusive code 9TO5TOYS10F at checkout. This all-new backup solution only just hit the market last month with a $2,399 full price, which we saw dropped to $1,599 in launch savings, which dropped lower to $1,439 with exclusive discounts. It’s starting off this sale at $1,699, with the exclusive code providing $870 in total savings to land it at the second-best price we have tracked, if you missed out on the lower launch deals. Head below to learn more about this new model and browse the entire lineup of deals we’re seeing in this sale.

Before I go over the Bluetti Apex 300 station’s capabilities, I wanted to point out the bonus promotions we’re seeing during this sale. For this new model and its bundles below, members will score 3x Bluetti Bucks that can be used later to gain additional discounts and rewards. The entire sale also has some free gifts once your order reaches certain pricing thresholds, with $2,000 to $2,999 orders getting a free K5 Power Bank, $3,000 to $3,999 orders getting a free Handsfree 1 power station, and $4,000+ orders get a free Handsfree 2 power station.

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The new Bluetti Apex 300 power station is a beast of a backup power companion, starting with its 2,764.8Wh LiFePO4 capacity (which is rated for a 17-year lifespan by the brand) that can be expanded with further investments up to a monstrous 58kWh. It provides some serious output power too, starting at up to a steady 3,840W that surges to 7,680W and can expand with your setup to provide up to 11.52kW. What’s more, it has quite the UPS switchover time of 0ms whenever power goes out and you have devices/appliances/more connected.

It boasts a robust array of 13 output ports to cover your device/appliance connection needs, as well as the usual in-app smart controls you’d expect. Not only does it support passthrough charging (with a particular focus on generators), but it comes with a solid lineup of recharging methods for its own battery. You can plug it into a standard AC outlet, which can have it to 80% in 45 minutes with its Turbo mode activated, as well as use your car’s auxiliary port, connect a generator, or reach up to its max 2,400W solar input.

***Note: Make sure to use the exclusive code 9TO5TOYS10F at checkout to score these prices.

Bluetti’s Power Week Apex 300 power station deals:

You can browse the entire Bluetti Anniversary Power Week Sale on its main landing page here.

woman standing next to Lectric XPress 750 commuter e-bike

Lectric’s Endless Summer Sale offers $424 in FREE gear with the 60-mile XPress 750 commuter e-bikes at $1,299, more

Lectric has launched its Endless Summer Sale that is offering up to $720 in savings on its lineup of e-bike bundles, which includes the ongoing $500 price cut on the ONE Premium commuter e-bike. Among the group, we spotted a notably large bundle being given to Lectric’s XPress 750 Long-Range Commuter e-bikes that are getting $424 in FREE gear at $1,299 shipped, in both its step-thru and step-over designs. This package would normally run you $1,723 without the bundle savings, which beats out all the bundles we’ve seen before that only ever amounted up to $410 in gear. Along with the e-bike (which is one of my favorite commuters over the years), you’ll be getting a rear cargo rack, fenders to go over both tires, an Elite headlight upgrade, a suspension seat post, two adjustable rear-view mirrors, and an accordion-style folding bike lock. Head below for more on this e-bike’s capabilities and the other deals we’re seeing while the sale lasts.

If you want to learn more about this e-bikes capabilities, or check out the full lineup of e-bike deals, be sure to check out our full coverage of this sale here.

aiper's irrisense smart irrigation system spraying water across yard with house in background

Aiper’s IrriSense smart irrigation system brings far-reaching, app-controlled functionality to your yard at its $500 low

By way of its official Amazon storefront, Aiper is offering a second chance to pick up its latest IrriSense Smart Sprinkler Irrigation System for $499.99 shipped, after clipping the on-page $200 off coupon, which matches the price we’re seeing directly from the brand’s website. It’s only been on the market since May, with it normally going for $700 outside of discounts, of which things have mostly dropped down to $600, except for the first-time fall to $500 we saw mid-August. Now that low price is coming back for round two, as $200 is cut from the tag for the best price we have tracked.

If you want to learn more about this new device’s capabilities, be sure to check out our original coverage of this sale here.

greenworks 82V 16-inch cordless chainsaw sitting on freshly cut tree trunk

Save $202 on commercial-grade cutting power with Greenworks’ 82V 16-inch cordless chainsaw at a new $198 low

Amazon is now offering the best price yet on the Greenworks 82V Commercial-Grade 16-inch Cordless Chainsaw with a 4.0Ah battery and dual-port rapid charger at $198.11 shipped. This newer model has only been on the market since February and ranges between $300 and $400 on average, with regular periods spent down at the former. While there have been a few discounts under that rate, we’ve recently seen it cascading down in price since late August, with the 50% markdown here cutting $202 off the tag for the best new price we have tracked.

If you want to learn more about this electric chainsaw, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.

two women sit chatting with coffee mugs around solo stove's mesa XL fire pit

Enhance at-home or campsite outdoor gatherings with Solo Stove’s Mesa XL tabletop fire pit at $76

Through its official Amazon storefront, Solo Stove is offering its Mesa XL Tabletop Fire Pit for $76.40 shipped. This compact model usually runs for $120 outside of discounts, which we’ve mostly seen keeping the costs between $80 and $96 throughout the year, save for the one-time drop to the $76 low that popped up for a short period in late August. It’s coming in today within $1 of that low price, with the deal here cutting $44 off the tag for the next-best rate we have tracked.

If you want to learn more about this compact fire pit, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.

man cutting tree branch with worx nitro 20V mini chainsaw

Make up to 160 cuts with Worx’s Nitro 20V 5-inch mini chainsaw at its $100 annual low (Today only)

As part of its Deals of the Day, Best Buy is offering the Worx Nitro 20V 5-inch Cordless Mini Chainsaw at $99.99 shipped, which beats out the current Amazon pricing by $48. This handy tool would normally run you $150 at full price, which we’ve mostly seen dropping to $109, with occasional dips lower to $100 and the $99 low. While we haven’t seen that low price again since Christmas sales, you’re looking at the next-best rate here for the rest of the day only, cutting $50 off the tag to land $1 above that low.

If you want to learn more about this mini chainsaw, be sure to check out our original coverage of this one-day-only deal here.

man cleaning edges of driveway with greenworks 80V 17-inch string trimmer

For the rest of the day snag Greenworks’ 80V 17-inch cordless string trimmer at $180

As part of its Deals of the Day, Best Buy is offering the Greenworks 80V 17-inch Cordless String Trimmer with 2.0Ah battery at $179.99 shipped, which you’ll only find in a renewed condition directly from the brand’s website right now, matching the price of this brand-new model, while it’s unavailable on Amazon. It normally goes for $250 at full price, which has mostly been taken down to this same rate, save for the one-time fall to its $171 low we spotted at the top of August. You’re getting the next-best price here for the rest of the day though, which saves you $70 and lands just $9 higher than its lowest tracked rate.

If you want to learn more about this string trimmer, be sure to check out our original coverage of this one-day-only deal here.

Best Summer EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.


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