05:08 AM EDT, 05/15/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Tesla (TSLA) came under pressure from an Australian judge, who questioned whether the automaker was taking the discovery process seriously in a class action over alleged vehicle defects and misleading claims, Reuters reported Friday.

The automaker had produced only 2,000 documents after eight months of discovery and warned the company it could face "a really bad time"if its cooperation remained inadequate, Reuters said, citing federal court judge Tom Thawley.

The report said the lawsuit, brought on behalf of about 10,000 Australian Tesla drivers, accuses the company of misleading consumers about phantom braking, battery range and self-driving capabilities.

Tesla has denied mischaracterizing its products, it added.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs alleged that Tesla had failed to provide enough engineering and complaint-related documents for experts to review the claims properly, according to the report.

They added that Tesla's lawyer argued that the company had manually reviewed about 100,000 documents and still had another 75,000 to examine, while also trying to protect confidential information.

The judge ordered Tesla to complete discovery by July 31 and scheduled another hearing for Sept. 1, according to Reuters.

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