Tesla roasted by Chinese ride-hailing company in Times Square billboards - Fox Business

Chinese ride-hailing company Shenma Zhuanche isn't afraid to publicly air its grievances with Elon Musk's automotive company Tesla.

In order to get Tesla's attention, Shenma Zhuanche bought advertisement space in one of the world's most visited tourist attractions: Times Square. Three electronic billboards popped up in New York City last week, slamming Tesla for allegedly providing poor customer service.

The Chinese company — which said it was motivated by the Oscar-winning movie "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" to buy the ad space — claimed it experienced "electro-mechanical failures" with more than 20 percent of the 278 Tesla vehicles it bought from 2016 to 2017, according to the daily Chinese newspaper Global Times, citing an announcement made by Shenma Zhuanche on the Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo.

MORE FROM FOXBUSINESS.COM...

"Tesla, fix it or not," one of the billboards reads. Another billboard states, “Tesla, compensate or not."

In a blog post, Shenma Zhuanche reportedly said it flagged the issues with its cars to Tesla's customer service team but its requests were ignored.

It took up to a year to fix some of the malfunctioning cars, the company claimed, per Global Times, adding that it cost the company roughly $970,000.

"Shenma special vehicle and Tesla have made repeated negotiations but Tesla's internal efficiency is low, resulting in unsatisfactory after-sales service, long processing time for complaints, and delays in solving vehicle problems," the company wrote on Weibo, according to a translation by Business Insider.

Tesla had a troubling first quarter of 2019, reporting a $700 million loss and an anticipated loss in the second quarter.

“It is very important as the company scales to make sure we are on a solid foundation and that we have the appropriate financial discipline across the company and that we are spending money very efficiently. At this point, I think we are doing that," Musk said during an earnings call last week, adding that the company needs to raise more capital.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP

Video of a Tesla vehicle igniting while parked in China went viral on Weibo last week, prompting Tesla to investigate the situation.

“We immediately sent a team onsite and we’re supporting local authorities to establish the facts. From what we know now, no one was harmed,” Tesla confirmed to Reuters on April 21.

Since 2013, there have been at least 14 reported incidents involving Tesla cars catching fire — with the majority of those instances occurring after a crash, the publication reports.

Tesla did not immediately return Fox Business' request for comment on Tuesday morning.

Let's block ads! (Why?)