Report Claims Union Pacific Holding 20 Tesla Model 3s Hostage from Buyers Awaiting Delivery (Updated)
The affected owners ordered their vehicles through the Salt Lake City service center.
Update, 4:20pm: The Reddit user who originally spoke to The Drive provided proof that a Tesla representative told her that her vehicle was still being held at the facility as of Friday afternoon, and claimed that Tesla has failed to provide her with an explanation or a delivery date. A Tesla spokesperson told The Drive that the vehicles in question were unloaded on Tuesday, but did not specify the status of the cars beyond that. We're working to learn more about the discrepancy.
Union Pacific is allegedly refusing to release 20 Tesla Model 3 vehicles to its Salt Lake City, Utah service center. As of Thursday, the vehicles have been in Salt Lake City for a week but railroad security will not allow Tesla to retrieve them, according to a recent Reddit post on the Tesla Motors subreddit.
User Ceerz claims that her Model 3 is one of the vehicles affected by this incident and that her delivery date was originally scheduled for Sept. 8 before being bumped out to Sept. 15 due to the delivery issues with Union Pacific. She stated a delivery date has been completely ignored until further notice because Tesla can't get Union Pacific to release the cars, and Tesla itself doesn't know when this will be resolved. The reason behind the delay hasn't been confirmed, but some allege that transportation costs haven't been paid to the railroad company or the lack of ground transportation from the shipping yard to the service center.
"I haven't received any additional details," Ceerz told The Drive. "Everything I know is in the post and within the comments. They did say they would be giving regular updates though."
This delivery day is just a small bump in the road compared to the many hurdles Tesla has faced with Model 3 production. The latest change came just days ago as Tesla announced it was removing two of its paint options unless you paid an extra premium, and it upped the price of the all-wheel-drive Model 3 by $1,000. Elon Musk stated that he hopes to double production by the end of the third quarter, hopefully, the increased pace doesn't lead to more quality issues, such as shipping a car with incorrect door panels.
We reached out to Union Pacific and Tesla for comments and will update when we hear back.
