Tesla Created A Top-Secret Group To Suppress Customer Complaints: Report

Tesla Inc TSLA reportedly created a secret group to minimize and suppress thousands of customer complaints regarding the driving range of Tesla cars.

The car would reportedly display a driving range, say 300 miles, but it would only be getting a portion of those miles, sometimes as low as half, a Thursday Reuters report said. 

Tesla then created a team to cancel appointments for people who had scheduled maintenance visits to diagnose the driving range problem. The team would text customers, telling them that a remote diagnosis of the car’s battery determined that everything was OK, and that they didn’t need to come in any longer. 

“Last summer, the company quietly created a 'Diversion Team' in Las Vegas to cancel as many range-related appointments as possible,” the Reuters article stated. 

Related Link: Tesla's V4 Superchargers Could Add 115 Miles of Range In 5 Minutes

Company Culture: The Reuters report described the top-secret team as if it were a buzzing sales team: celebrating "victories" by banging a xylophone and sometimes even standing on desks to celebrate a "case closed" when someone’s service had been canceled. 

If Tesla cars are unable to live up to their promised driving range, it would be part of a larger theme in which Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have not been able to deliver on promises. 

Musk said Tesla drivers would have full-self driving in 2017, accoridng to Gizmodo — and again in 2018, and the year after. Eventually, FSD did become available, but not until 2022.

He also said there would be one million Tesla robo-taxis by 2020.

Many Tesla customers have complained that their cars have taken longer than promised to be delivered, or that they have been delivered with imperfections. 

South Korean regulators fined Tesla for incorrectly displaying driving range, particularly in cold weather, in which drivers were only getting about half of the miles advertised. It’s typical for electric cars to lose some range in colder conditions. 

Read Also: Elon Musk's Fan-Following Dwindles, But Early Tesla Model 3 Owners Remain Loyal, Survey Finds

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