A group of Tesla owners in Norway have gone on a hunger strike to draw the attention of the electric car maker’s CEO, Elon Musk. The Nordic state is the country with the highest penetration of zero emission vehicles in the world and Tesla has been the most registered brand in recent years.
However, the builder’s products have been criticized for having questionable quality control and this, coupled with the difficulty in contacting technical support, is what has led these owners to take such a drastic step.
On their website, they charge that the cars do not start in very low or high temperatures, that the door handles do not open, that there is a constant creaking sound when driving, that the synthetic leather seats have finishing problems and show bubbles, that the seats do not adjust correctly, that the trunk is not watertight and floods with water, problems with recharging, poor paint finishes or lack of power, among many others.
These problems were already relatively frequent and it only takes a quick search of the forums to discover users with the same complaints, but Norwegian drivers are especially furious with the customer support.
According to them, they make them wait too long on the phone before they can talk to a workshop or they never receive a call that they were promised. Similar cases have occurred in other countries, including in the US, where paperwork errors made a customer unable to drive his vehicle for more than six months.
Shortly after the start of the hunger strike became known, Elon Musk tweeted that he was fasting on the recommendation of a friend of his. According to the Norwegian owners, this is an ironic insult. Neither Tesla nor Musk have taken a position on the matter, but he attended the ONS energy fair held in Stavanger (Norway) last Monday.
“Civilization will collapse without gas or oil”
At the conference, Musk stated that “realistically, we will have to continue to use oil and gas. Otherwise, civilization will collapse.” In his view, the world’s greatest challenge is to make the transition to renewable energy, “which will take decades.”
“An interesting solution for Norway in winter,” he stressed, would be to use wind power in maritime generators in the North Sea, to store it in static batteries.
However, the priority for the executive at the end of the year is to fully develop the autonomous capacity of his Tesla vehicles, through the Full Self Driving package. This could be ready in the US and possibly Europe if legislative approval is achieved.
A week ago, Tesla increased the price of this option by $3,000, from $12,000 to $15,000. The change will take effect on September 5.