Elon Musk is in Norway for the Offshore Northern Seas (ONS) 2022 energy conference. The Tesla CEO is often accused of tweeting random stuff to influence what search engines will find when his name and something he does not want people to talk about hits the news. On August 29, Musk spoke about fasting, which is a massive coincidence with the Tesla Hunger Strike customers of the brand are organizing in Norway.
The website has a contact email address and very little information about the plans of these folks. We sent them a message and were waiting for their reply to cover the story. However, waiting any more would make us lose the timing to talk about what these Tesla owners have to say.
On the website they have created, they said that they are “the canary in the coal mine” because Norway is “by far the number 1 Tesla country in the world.” By that, these owners mean that “Norway has the most Teslas per capita in the world.” In other words, they believe they can show what is going wrong with the company and its products – eventually at a high personal cost.
Photo: via Erlend Mørch
The U.S. and China buy more Tesla vehicles than Norway. Tesla’s market share there was more relevant in the past: the Volkswagen Group sold almost twice as many EVs in Norway in 2022 as Tesla. Despite that, Norway is a relevant market for the EV maker, and its customers may truly face issues other markets will only learn about a long time later.
The list of complaints elaborated by these folks is long, as you can see below:
“The car won't start in cold weather
Door handles won't open in cold weather
Intense squeaking noise
Car won't start in warm weather
"Bubbles" in seats
Loose front seat
Trunk lid filled with rainwater
Autopilot does not work properly
Internet is slow and does not work as it ought to
The wipers do not work (well enough)
The car creaks when you pass speed bumps and other bumps in the road
Decorative moldings loosen
The lights do not work properly
The doors stop working properly
Doors that open by themselves
The computer does not work
Yellow edges around the display screens
Windows that do not close completely
Systems reset on their own
Problems charging
Reduced power
Rust problems on new cars (especially Model 3)
Poor paint quality means that the car has to be repainted
You were promised free charging throughout the car’s lifetime, but the new charging stations do not fit the car
Lower battery life that Tesla claims
Problems with the air conditioner
Not all problems are solved when the car is serviced
Tesla promise(s) to contact you, but you do not hear from them
You have to wait on the phone for a long time before Tesla answers”
Photo: via Tesla Hunger Strike
Curiously, these owners inform that “many of the complaints are from here: https://bilklager.no/teslaclaims/.” Bilklager is a company that organizes consumer consortiums to tackle legal problems as a group. That makes the legal battle more affordable for the people involved. It is not clear if these customers have these issues or if they just consulted Bilklager to collect more issues plaguing Norwegian buyers.
We compared the two lists, and the ones that seem to come from these customers are these:
“Bubbles" in seats
Car won't start in warm weather
Door handles won't open in cold weather
Loose front seat
The car won't start in cold weather
Trunk lid filled with rainwater
Photo: via Erlend Mørch
The list does not include some other problems that we are aware of, such as uneven panel gaps, suspension issues, rear bumpers that collect water and fall off, windows that spontaneously shatter, heat pump failures, and a long etcetera.
It seems that this proposal to start a hunger strike came from 17 Tesla owners. That’s the number of cars used to form the word “help” that you can see in the images above. It is also the number of people reunited in the photos shared on the page – apart from the filming crew.
Photo: via Tesla Hunger Strike
The only part in which they share their requests is this message on the website:
“HELP US GET IN TOUCH WITH ELON
We are a group of dissatisfied Norwegian Tesla owners.
We believe that if Elon Musk is made aware of our troubles, he will solve the situation. Please help us get his attention.”
Photo: via Erlend Mørch
It seems that their only request is to talk to Musk, but they do not mention anything specific apart from all these defects or a schedule for Tesla to fix them, for example.
One of these owners seems to be Erlend Mørch, who has a popular YouTube channel in Norway. He shared the pictures and the Tesla Hunger Strike page on Twitter. When Elon Musk shared that he lost weight fasting, Mørch interpreted that as a “cruel subtweet.” Talking about fasting when people are considering a hunger strike to get his attention seems to confirm that Musk likes to play with SEO tactics.
We are still waiting to hear from these owners about the questions we have sent them. It will be interesting to learn what they have to say apart from the cry for help written with Tesla vehicles and the defects that they have listed. We will get back to this subject as soon as that happens.
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