Renting an electric car NextMove cancels Tesla reservation
Nextmove adds far fewer Tesla Model 3 to its fleet than planned. The company had ordered 100 Tesla Model 3 at the end of last year, but after problems with the delivery of the first models the car manufacturer canceled a additional order. This applies to 85 cars worth around five million euros.
According to Nextmove, only every fourth new Model 3 vehicle in the first 15 vehicles delivered in the spring of 2019 was without defects. Our editors have received delivery reports with up to seven defects per vehicle – mostly optical defects such as paint inclusions, scratches in the paint or interior, but also moisture in one of the headlights.
However, the safety-related deficiencies are far more serious, such as a severely damaged tire. In a press release, Nextmove also mentioned faulty charge controllers, faulty wiring or missing emergency call buttons. "Such quality defects would have jeopardized customer safety and the economy of Nextmove," the report reads.
"Tesla has obviously come into service hell," says Nextmove CEO Stefan Moeller. In an agreement with Tesla Germany for a process for faulty delivery and / or punctual repair of defective cars that Tesla withdrew, Nextmove set a 24-hour ultimatum and immediately canceled the order for 85 additional vehicles when this timeframe ran out. “As announced by phone yesterday, Tesla wants to stick to the usual processes. Therefore, today Tesla will cancel overdue vehicles according to the sales situation of vehicles, the car manufacturer wrote in an email to the electric car rental company.
"We do not know if we are an isolated case or whether we are generally dealing with business partners in this way. We regret this very much," says Moeller. "But: In the end, we just insisted on complying with quality standards and processes that are common in the market to protect our tenants and our business model.
In response to inquiries from our German edition, electrive.net Tesla has defended itself against the allegation that the company caused the cancellation itself. "It is wrong to say that Tesla canceled the order because it was the customer who did not accept more cars ready for delivery on site," a company spokesman said. "We believe that the customer's decision not to fully accept the remaining Model 3 orders was not only based on quality issues, but was strongly influenced by his disappointment with an independent dispute earlier this year. An explanation that was also given almost literally to Bloomberg news agency, which also reported on the incident series between Nextmove and Tesla.
Nextmove is under some pressure to move because, after ordering 100 vehicles, the company has already signed a number of long-term leases with customers "These had to be partially terminated or rented out to customers at discounted rates with another electric car. This summer, Nextmove said it wanted to order four Model 3 cars online." The result was that Tesla could offer us vehicles like new ones that were already registered. to a private individual, "says Moeller.
This would have had two main consequences: BAFA only provides the environmental bonus for vehicles registered for the first If Modelm 3 had already been approved, as Nextmove claimed, it would not have been possible to apply for the eco bonus despite the offer of a new car. In addition, no more tax could be claimed as input tax from the tax office.
In response to this accusation, Tesla explained that there was a "temporary system problem with the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) mission" that has now been resolved. It was wrong to assume that Tesla had ever planned to deliver cars with chassis numbers previously registered for another customer.
Nextmove will not do without Tesla vehicles, at least not completely. "Although we consider the Model 3 to be the best electric car in the world today, we are now very keen for other manufacturers to come out with competitive vehicles next year – and we also know what customer service means," says Moeller. "But of course we continue to test to see if Tesla can get out of service hell."
Nextmove says they have 38 Model S and 12 Model X in their fleet. The first ten Model S were purchased in 2015. Even before the official European launch of Model 3 in the spring of 2019, Nextmove had already imported several Model 3 from the United States in 2018, thus leasing the volume model before marketing.
Translation of an original German article by
