Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Electric cars are still a relatively new phenomenon. They started a few years ago with hybrid cars that used both gas and electricity, but some vehicle manufacturers are starting to claim consumers can drive their cars for miles using just the electric battery. Although they’ve been put through lab testing at the manufacturers, there has been little testing done to see how those results hold up in the real world. Consequently, vehicle manufacturers and marketers need to be very careful about the promises they make to their consumers when advertising their new technology.
According to a recent consumer class action lawsuit against Volvo Cars of North America LLC, the car company claimed that its new XC90 T8 could drive up to 25 miles on a full electric charge, but Xavier Laurens argues that is not actually the case.
Laurens paid an extra $20,000 when he preordered his new hybrid car from Volvo in order to save money on gas and limit his carbon footprint. Based on Volvo’s advertising of the vehicle, Laurens believed he would be able to use his new car to commute to and from his job in Chicago without using the gasoline engine, but the vehicle allegedly did not live up to the expectations set by the manufacturer.
According to Laurens, when he drove the car, he could only drive 8-10 miles on a full battery charge before he would need to use the gas engine. Laurens brought the car into his local Volvo dealership to figure out what was wrong with his new car. The dealership pointed to a sticker on the car that said the electric range was only 13 miles. Laurens alleges he had no way of knowing that when he purchased the car because he preordered it and the advertising claimed 25 miles. The dealership tested the vehicle and was able to get 14-18 miles out of the battery, but only when driving on the highway at a speed under 40 mph with the heat and safety features turned off.
The 14-18 miles the dealership was able to get under unrealistic circumstances is still far below the projected 25 miles that Volvo told its customers their new car could go. Laurens has said he would not have paid the extra $20,000 if he had known the car’s battery could not take it as far as the dealership claimed it could. Volvo has allegedly refused to refund Laurens the very high premium he paid for his new car, so he has filed a consumer class action lawsuit against the car company.
Laurens is seeking to represent everyone in the U.S. who bought or leased a 2016 Volvo XC90 T8. The lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages as well as actual damages, including disgorgement of the car company’s revenues and a court order prohibiting Volvo from ever again entering into its alleged illegal advertising practices.
The consumer lawsuit is a major one because, so far, it’s the only one of its kind. It may be the first so far, but legal experts estimate it will not be the last.Our Chicago car fraud and Lemon law attorneys near Glen Ellyn and Carol Stream have experience representing victims of odometer roll backs, title washing, fake or improper certifications of rebuilt wrecks and other used car scams. We bring individual and class actions suits for defective cars with common design defects and auto dealer fraud and other car dealer scams such as selling rebuilt wrecks as certified used cars or misrepresenting a car as being in good condition when it is rebuilt wreck or had the odometer rolled back. We also see cases where new car dealers conceal that the car has been in accident while in their possession or used car dealers who put duck tape in back of the check engine light to conceal serious engine or emission problems. Super Lawyers has selected our DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, Will and Cook County Illinois auto-fraud, car dealer fraud and lemon law lawyers as among the top 5% in Illinois. We only collect our fee if we win or settle your case. For a free consultation call our Chicago class action lawyers at our toll free number 630-333-0333 or contact us on the web by clicking here.