Tesla Gets Roasted by Chinese Firm’s NYC Times Square Ad

By Ryan Gandolfo

One China-based ride-hailing company recently rented arguably the best advertising spot in New York City to call out Tesla for being a lousy business partner.

Shenma Zhuanche rented three prime-time billboards in Times Square to complain about Tesla’s poor quality control, inadequate communications and, essentially, wasting Shenma’s time and money, according to a post on their official Weibo account.

The company stated that they had purchased 278 Tesla vehicles from 2016 to 2017, over 20% of which suffered from mechanical issues. The Chinese company expressed how it took, on average, 45 days to repair each car, costing Shenma roughly RMB6.5 million in losses. In total, the company also estimated that Tesla’s blunder cost Shenma 2,472 days in lost driving time.

Shenma’s Weibo post included close-up images of the text that appeared on each of the three billboards, including large headings that read, “Tesla, will you fix it?” “Tesla, will you compensate us?” “Tesla, will you acknowledge it?” The advertisements were in Chinese with no English translations.

According to Quartz, Tesla has declined to comment on the matter.

Shenma’s billboard idea apparently took inspiration from the Oscar-winning flick Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The company considered the stunt the most effective way of voicing their displeasure with the electric carmaker and even quoted Frances McDormand, the protagonist of the film, by writing in their Weibo post: “The more you keep a case in the public eye, the better your chances are at getting it solved.”

Tesla hasn’t been on the positive side of news in recent weeks. On April 2, a Model S exploded in a car park in Shanghai. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured in the blaze.

Watch the sleek cruiser go up in flames below:

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?width=500&height=375&auto=0&vid=n0863w55d6z

While the California-based company is currently building its Shanghai Gigafactory, the first gigafactory overseas, it faces growing competition from Chinese competitors like BYD, an electric vehicle maker that reported a profit increase of 632% in the first quarter of 2019.

READ MORE: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Offered Permanent Residency in China 

[Cover image via @神马专车/Weibo]

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