Tag

luxury car Archives - Evoto

HOW OUR TESLA WAS STOLEN IN CANADA, SHIPPED ACROSS THE WORLD AND WE GOT IT BACK

By Clean Energy, Technology, Tesla

A while ago, a renter used a fake id and burner cell phone to rent a Tesla from us. They paid using a prepaid credit card for a long rental. But they had other plans.

They took the car to a crater / container packaging & shipping company to have it packed in a container to ship to the Middle East.

Our rental cars are set up in a way where no one can disable the remote monitoring. So we were able to track the car to the shipping company.
Following the paperwork, we were able to uncover the destination of where our Tesla was heading and the container & ship it was on.

We got suspicious when the rented car was at that location for a few days without movement.

The Tesla app locator helped us get a warrant to search the place
We involved the local police and went to seize the car but we had just missed them and the car was on a ship to the Middle East. The ship literally had just sailed.

 

 

Our management and lawyers then involved RCMP and INTERPOL (not an easy task) and the container was seized in Italy and shipped back to us.
Of course this was after lots of lawyer work and paperwork across the ocean, but our Tesla came back in one piece.

We are not sure why car thieves think they can steal a GPS enabled Tesla and ship it to another country where Tesla can disable supercharging and other features of the car making it obsolete.

Toronto and Montreal have also had record high car thefts and what is referred to as friendly fraud (renting a car under false pretence) in the past few years due to the close access to the Montreal port for shipping as well as minimal repercussions of the crime. There is also a political tug of war between the border authorities and local authorities over who needs to manage this, as well as a lack of funding & time to scan each container but that is a whole other story.
Source: Border officers frustrated at inaction over stolen cars being exported through Montreal

(The stolen Tesla was put with another ICE car in a container designated to carry scrap metal). In the end, we would like to thank Tesla Montreal, Tesla California, our lawyers in Canada & Italy, SPVM, RCMP, Italian police & INTERPOL for helping us get our Tesla back.

I guess the record remains great at 113 out of 116 stolen Teslas retrieved!
Source: Stolen Tesla vehicles in the US have almost all been recovered: 112 out of 115

Today we run background checks on every customer & have a second GPS tracking system on our fleet of all Tesla models; S, X and 3

Model 3

How the Tesla Model 3 will revolutionize the car industry

By Model 3, Technology, Tesla

Most people think of Tesla as a luxury brand catering to the high end luxury car market, and they are correct. . . for now. Tesla is currently competing with the Mercedes S class with its Tesla Model S and the BMW X5 (and possibly) the BMW X6 with their Tesla Model X.

However, most people seem to forget that Elon Musk’s dream has always been to build an affordable electric car priced for mass market production but with compelling range, style & brand equity. Tesla’s head of engineering; Doug Field said:

“Everything in the car is designed to be assembled very easily. Automation and robots are a big part of it, so that we can make very high volumes in a relatively small factory” — Doug Field, Tesla Engineering

The Tesla Model 3 will compete with the likes of the BMW 3 series, Audi’s A4 and the Mercedes C Class. This makes it an aspirational entry level car to get into the Tesla brand. If we consider that the average price of a new vehicle in the US is about $33,000 USD, Elon priced his car with a slight “Tesla Premium” at a starting price of 35,000 USD. It is easier to make, has a better supply chain and expanded mobile service

If you compare Tesla to Apple, the Model 3 is more like the iPhone SE . Its simpler and more affordable than a Model S, but it doesn’t mean it will be cheap or slow.

The reason the Model 3 is a turning point that will shake the automobile industry is because the highly nimble / automated factory, production line, supply chain and all the work behind the scenes will prove to them that Tesla is truly a major player capable of mass market efficient production. Delivering on the Model 3 will prove Tesla is no longer a niche brand for a niche market, but rather a true contender with a 100% electric car gone mainstream.

 

“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster” — Elon Musk

 

Most skeptics will continue to dismiss Tesla and the 100% electric car. However, just as Ford’s Model T was the cause for the dynamic shift from the horse drawn carriage to the ICE (internal combustion engine car) back in 1913, Tesla’s Model 3 will be the catalyst for change that propels electric vehicles into the mainstream.

 

 

 

It turns out, most people — regardless of their feelings (or lack thereof) for the environment — will almost always overlook the higher upfront cost of anything in favour of a more lower running cost. This is because it makes selfish economic sense and translates into huge savings over the long run. The secret for most consumers lies in the lifetime savings they stand to save from the decrease of those on-going running cost as well as the added value they stand to gain from the new technology . Horses in this example had huge running costs. They had to be cared for, fed, groomed, cleaned, kept in stables not to mention the inconvenience of dealing with their manure. That was why people transitioned from the horse and that is why people will transition to electric cars, with the affordable Model 3.

If we add to this the decreasing cost of batteries, the increasing range of said batteries and the improving speed of charge time; we get get a revolution of electric vehicles powered by the catalyst that is the Tesla Model 3