When your washing machine that should wash ‘a lifetime’ without problems falls apart after just two rounds, you hand in your receipt and the purchase price is refunded. But what about EVs that do not meet expectations? The Supreme Court ruled last week that you can get your money back if the range of the electric car is shorter than promised.
A Dutch car dealer sold a Jaguar I-Pace (photo for illustration) to a business customer. According to the dealer, the range was exactly as long as the WLTP prescribes. With this EV that is 480 kilometers. The purchase went through and the business customer left with the Jaguar. He later found out that the actual range was only about 200 miles. The buyer therefore wanted to have the purchase canceled, but the dealer did not cooperate.
The Court’s Judgment
The case goes to trial. The court is on the buyer’s side in this regard. According to the court, the buyer could assume that the driving range under normal circumstances was significantly higher than the actual range of approximately 300 kilometers. The court defines normal driving conditions as ‘normal driving behaviour, including driving in winter and especially driving on the highway’.
Because the actual range is more than 35 percent smaller than the promised range, the electric car does not comply with the purchase agreement and the buyer may ask for his money back. But the car dealer does not leave it at that. According to the lawyer, the court’s decision is legally incorrect and the decision is ‘insufficiently comprehensibly motivated’.
The Supreme Court does not agree. The sale does not contain the properties that the buyer could expect based on the agreement, the Supreme Court ruled. In addition, the judgment is legally correct and comprehensibly motivated. The seller must therefore buy back the Jaguar from the purchasing party. So if you drive around in a recently purchased EV and the range is disappointing? Then you can claim to get the purchase price back.
