Niall Darwin of Raglan is taking Tesla to the Disputes Tribunal for $15,000 compensation after alleging the company won’t offer supercharging or software updates when it initially said it would.
He bought a wrecked 2016 Tesla S 90D in Australia, rebuilt it and brought it to New Zealand.
“Once I had been told I was getting something, I expected that I would get it,” Darwin says.
The older model Tesla sells for about $160,000 new, but Darwin got his with 3000km on the clock for A$40,000 because it was an insurance write-off, Newshub reports.
He sought reassurance the car would have free supercharging for life before rebuilding it
Darwin says he got that confirmation in writing from Tesla Sydney, so he had the car rebuilt, costing him about NZ$100,00 all up – including auction costs.
Back in New Zealand, the electric bike maker and engineer plugged it in but got a message saying supercharging was not enabled.
With no supercharging and no software support, Tesla told Darwin his car had to be inspected in New Zealand to ensure it was safe.
That inspection said: “Tesla will redeem Unsupported Vehicle and re-enable support.” But the company didn’t do that, Newshub says.
“They said because it was written off in Australia, we are not going to support it,” Darwin explains. “[They are] basically ignoring their own technicians’ test reports.”
Tesla told Newshub that due to the extreme amount of damage the vehicle had, it’s not confident it’s safe and doesn’t want to do anything that could increase that risk.
Tesla apologises for the inconvenience, but says it has to prioritise safety.
After a social media campaign by Darwin, Tesla enabled regular fast-charging. The company has now closed a loophole where a Tesla written off in Australia can be imported into New Zealand.
Darwin says he might own the Tesla’s physical aspects, like the metal and leather, but that Tesla controls the software.
He says in hindsight he would not have bought the write-off car if he knew what he had to go through.
