Tesla Dumping Unsold Cybertrucks At Mall Parking Lot And The City’s Fed Up | Carscoops
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Detroit’s planning and community chief told the run-down lot’s landlord that storage of vehicles was not a permitted use of the land
  • Farmington Hills officials are fuming over a glut of unsold Cybertrucks being stored in the city.
  • Tesla has been parking the EVs at a shopping center earmarked for major redevelopment.
  • Officials say the electric vehicles violate zoning codes and are warning the property owner.
  • Null User Object@lemmy.world
    8·
    2 months ago

    Looking at the video, it’s not just trucks, it’s a whole lot of cars, too. At first I thought that was an active mall and those were cars of shoppers, but then you can tell that they’re all teslas.

  • Jikiya@lemmy.world
    17·
    2 months ago

    Did he park them in a lot away from cameras, hoping there would be some “demonstrations” that would then allow him to claim insurance money? Does the policy cover “domestic terrorism”?

    • anomnom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Plug them into the grid and use the damn storage.

      Or take the batteries and do it more efficiently.

      Fuck those stupid cars.

      • Nougat@fedia.io
        1041·
        2 months ago

        Ah, they’re parked on private property, which means the property owner needs to have them towed. Which means the city has to notify the property owner (they have) ahead of the city doing the tow order. That it’s a derelict shopping mall means that the property owner likely doesn’t care. There’s also the complication of the city not wanting to piss off a commercial property owner.

        But yeah, the end result should be towing, with daily storage fees racking up until Tesla comes and pays up. Tow lots don’t fuck around.

        • entwine413@lemm.ee
          52·
          2 months ago

          The only caveat is that they’re violating zoning codes. That means the city can directly act on it.

          Of course, they likely have to go through the notification process before towing them, but they probably don’t have to have the property owners permission to do so. More likely they’ll warn the property owner a few times, then send them the bill for towing.

          • Nougat@fedia.io
            171·
            2 months ago

            I imagine the city can tow, after following some kind of notification schedule. But the property owner isn’t going to pay the bill; not their vehicles, why would they give a fuck? Tesla is going to argue that the property owner should pay, since the violation is against the property owner. Tesla might not care, either, they’ve got nothing to do with the vehicles since nobody wants to buy them. If you just leave them in the impound lot, there’s no bill to pay. Since they’re unsold vehicles, there aren’t even titles for the city to put a lien on for the impound fee.

            On the other hand, I know where a bunch of Crybertrucks (I’m leaving it) are, in case anyone has a bunch of extra spray paint they need to use up.

            • entwine413@lemm.ee
              6·
              2 months ago

              Because the property owner is responsible for the things on their property, especially if they’re violating code. It’s the property owner’s responsibility to have them removed, even if they don’t own them, so if they don’t after being warned and the city hauls them off, they can get stuck with the bill for the tow.

              They won’t have to pay for the storage of the trucks, though. Just the initial tow. Then they can sue whomever dumped them to try to recoup the cost.

              But literally all they have to do is call a towing company who would be more than happy to remove them.

        • solrize@lemmy.ml
          6·
          2 months ago

          That it’s a derelict shopping mall means that the property owner likely doesn’t care.

          Reasonable guess is that Tesla is paying rent to the mall owner. Is it usual to store unsold cars out in the open for long periods? I know they sit in outdoor new car lots at dealerships, but I figured maybe it usually wasn’t for very long.

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
    71·
    2 months ago

    Wow, that sounds like announcing a really juicy target for certain people. But if those vehicles were to sustain damage, that might mean an insurance payout. So really, there is an insurance company or two out there that we should be short selling and that should be providing security on that lot.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
    46·
    2 months ago

    Well if they’re just abandoning them, then the city should seize them and start selling them for parts. I know most of it is garbage but surely parts of it can go to something more useful.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      161·
      2 months ago

      The article didn’t do their research but certainly implies it’s the landlord making a quick buck on storage fees why waiting for redevelopment to start

  • Stern@lemmy.world
    55·
    2 months ago

    On one hand, lmao. On the other, seems like kind of a dumb thing for the city to get mad over. Not like that dead mall’s parking lot was suddenly going to become a economic center of the city or anything.

    • kerntucky@infosec.pubEnglish
      12·
      2 months ago

      “Tesla has been parking the EVs at a shopping center earmarked for major redevelopment.”

      They’re in the way of the redevelopment.

  • MehBlah@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    2 months ago

    The property owners should seize them for unpaid storage fee’s. That has happened in my state. Putting your property on someone elses property is considered a tacit admission of a debt when it comes to storage. Ironically there is another law that states you can’t charge for more than six months storage without a signed agreement. However there is nothing regulating how much that fee is. Case in point a person failed to pick up late model car at a towing company for two years. The towing company gave the owner a huge bill and they went to court to get it reduced to six months. The towing company just resubmitted a bill for six months at a increased rate that equaled the amount of the original bill. By the time the asshole who should have come and got their car sooner got through the bill had went up again. It was quite entertaining. to watch.

    • Etterra@discuss.onlineEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      Everywhere you look in Illinois you’ll see variations of “unauthorized vehicles will be towed at owners expense.” So I don’t know what those guys’ problem is; impound them.

  • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
    161·
    2 months ago

    Same thing is happening in Europe with Chinese EVs. Chinese EVs are piling up at European ports because they’ve gone unsold and the carmakers were way too optimistic or it’s some sort of book keeping trickery to rack up the sales figures.

  • Johnnykorn@lemmy.world
    723·
    2 months ago

    But using the land for vehicle storage is against city code.

    You can park your car in the parking lot, but not that car…

    And dealers do not randomly park cars in parking lots without permission otherwise they would have been towed. The lot owner is getting paid.

    • Sundray@lemmus.orgEnglish
      46·
      2 months ago

      A lot of municipalities have different rules and definitions for “parking” and “long-term parking.” In a lot of cases long-term parking is strictly prohibited in places where parking is otherwise encouraged. You can’t just leave your vehicle in one place.

      You’ve got to move it, move it.

    • Dragonstaff@leminal.spaceEnglish
      171·
      2 months ago

      I’m trying to figure out why someone would care. The mall is mostly closed. Yeah, the dealership must have paid the lot owner, so I don’t see the problem.

      It’d be great if the ugly things didn’t exist, but since they do, they have to go somewhere.