Chinese online ride-hailing company Shenma Zhuanche, also known as IUnicorn, found a novel way to complain about the poor quality of the Tesla electric vehicles (EVs) it bought from Tesla Inc.
The Chengdu-based firm rented three electronic billboards located in Times Square in New York City last week to complain about the huge losses it was suffering because a fifth of the Tesla EVs it bought was defective.
Shenma Zhuanche is the biggest buyer of Tesla cars in the Asian Pacific region. It purchased 278 Tesla EVs from 2016 to 2017. The problem is that out of the 278 Tesla EVs in its fleet, over 20 percent (about 50 EVs) experienced electromechanical malfunctions requiring expensive repairs, said the company. Tesla isn't famous for its sterling quality control record.
Shenma Zhuanche rented three billboards which demanded, in Chinese, that Tesla repay it nearly $1 million for lengthy repair time on the defective EVs it purchased over the past few years. It said that because of these electromechanical problems, these 50 or so Tesla EVs were unavailable for 3.5 million minutes.
The company also complained about the inefficiency and unresponsiveness of Tesla's customer service. Failing to get Tesla to listen to its grievances, Shenma Zhuanche decided to publicly shame Tesla into listening to its complaints.
The three Wall Street billboards it rented called-out Tesla for bad quality control in China. It demanded Tesla repair the defective EVs, compensate Shenma Zhuanche for its losses and admit the quality issues in its products. It also unveiled several large Times Square billboards as part of the campaign.
The Chinese messages on the billboard translated into, "Tesla, fix it or not," "Tesla, pay us or not," and "Tesla, admit it or not."
To Shenma Zhuanche, the three electronic billboards were deactivated only 30 minutes after they were first turned on. It's now investigating why this occurred.
Tesla has refused to comment on Shenma Zhuanche's claims.
