Elon Musk speaks out about Tesla's $1.5 million payment to settle a battery-charging lawsuit, saying 'if we are wrong, we are wrong. In this case, we were.'

• Elon Musk used Twitter to discuss a recent Tesla settlement focused on battery capacity.
• Tesla agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle claims it cut battery capacity to 1,743 vehicles in 2019.
• "If we are wrong, we are wrong," Musk said on Friday. "In this case, we were."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the electric-vehicle maker been wrong to lower the maximum charging capacity for some vehicles.

"If we are wrong, we are wrong," he said on Twitter on Friday. "In this case, we were."

Tesla agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle claims it had reduced the charging capacity on some vehicles in 2019, according to a settlement agreement filed in US District Court in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The agreement included payments of $625 each to the owners of 1,743 Model S vehicles that temporarily had their maximum charging capacity reduced.

In another Friday tweet Musk expanded on his company's thinking about lawsuits and other claims.

"Tesla policy is never to give in to false claims, even if we would lose, and never to fight true claims, even if we would win," he said.

The settlement agreement would bring to a close a class-action lawsuit filed in August 2019 by David Rasmussen, who said a software update reduced the range and charging speed of his Model S.

The lawsuit said the company released the update in May 2019, limiting battery charging on some vehicles by about 10%. After three months of a 10% reduction, it was lowered to 7% for seven months, the lawsuit said. Software updates in May 2020 restored much of the charging capacity, court filings said.

The settlement would provide "many times" the $175 estimated loss per vehicle, according to court filings.

A hearing on the settlement agreement was scheduled for December 9 with Judge Beth Labson Freeman.