A Chinese Startup Got 3 Times Square Billboards to Diss Tesla

"Three Billboards" has nothing on this.

Three Billboards

A Chinese car-hailing company called Shenma Zhuanche bought three separate billboards outside Reuters' Times Square headquarters in New York City to beef with Tesla. Inspired by the blockbuster film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," the company says it's trying to publicly shame the electric automaker for bad customer service.

Here's the backstory: The company purchased 278 Tesla vehicles for its fleet, 20 percent of which experienced "electromechanical malfunctions" according to Chinese news site the Global Times. Slow repairs and customer service from Tesla cost the company the equivalent of about $970,000, so now it's shaming the Elon Musk-run company.

Public Shaming

So far, Tesla has responded neither to news outlets nor to Shenma Zhuanche about its claims that the vehicles took up to 19 months to repair.

The details of Shenma Zhuanche's contract with Tesla are unknown, but the billboards specifically call for the automaker to make amends by repairing the faulty vehicles, pay for the lost revenue, and 'fess up to selling low-quality cars, according to Global Times.

Additional reporting by Victor Tangermann

READ MORE: A Chinese ride-hailing company is so unhappy with its fleet of 278 Tesla cars that it bought billboards in Times Square to demand refunds [Business Insider]

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