We have become accustomed to seeing disgruntled owners destroy their cars in recent years to protest poor quality or bad service, but this latest incident from China is a little different. Minutes after taking delivery of a white Tesla Model S in Beijing, Yu Xinquan smashed the windshield of the 1 million yuan (about $173,600) car with a wrench.
Obviously, as he had just taken delivery of the car, he didn’t have time to figure out whether it is reliable or not, so what made him do this? “It’s a protest against the company. Tesla’s arrogance made me angry,” the man was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.
Yu Xinquan, an e-commerce entrepreneur from the northern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, was angry that his car was delivered too late, saying that Tesla promised him in early April that his Model S would be delivered within six weeks with a complimentary limited-edition plate carrying Tesla’s logo and free installation of charging equipment at his home.
Mr. Yu ordered a Tesla Model S in October and made a down payment of 250,000 yuan ($40,195). However, he says his hopes of becoming one of Tesla’s first drivers in China were dashed in April when he discovered his vehicle hadn’t been manufactured yet in the U.S., even though Tesla began delivering cars to customers in China.
Tesla’s explanation was that the policy of “first come, first served” didn’t apply to customers outside Beijing and Shanghai because of a lack of service centers and charging considerations. However, the customer argues that nobody from Tesla told him that when he placed the order.
While he didn’t get to be the first Tesla owner in China, Mr. Yu certainly became the first Tesla owner in the world to smash his car’s windshield.
Photo: Yu Xinquan / WSJ
By Dan Mihalascu
PHOTO GALLERY
