AutoMedia/YouTubeIt was bound to happen sooner or later. In fact, it’s probably happened loads of times, there’s probably plenty of petrol-soaked electric cars rolling around, they just weren’t captured on camera.
Unfortunately for this lady, she was captured on camera. Fortunately, though, by the end of it she seems to see the funny side, so it’s all good. Also, we’re arguably spreading awareness for the proper treatment of expensive electric cars. It’s an important campaign.
I suppose the real question is, when driving her electric car, how did the driver know it was out of fuel? I’ve never been in one of these Teslas, in fact I’ve never been in a car, I have to crawl up and out of the sewer to get to work. But from what I’ve heard, a little hologram of Elon Musk pops up and says ‘Your Tesla needs charging!’ rather than a picture of Jeremy Clarkson telling you to feed your hungry vehicle with petrol, as he does in my imaginary car.
The video was captured in the US, where the driver had pulled into a gas station to fill up her car. Perhaps she had just driven it off the forecourt and was on her way home with the new car for the very first time, and the salesperson had forgotten to tell her it doesn’t take gas, but electricity.
Undeterred after not finding anywhere to insert the gas nozzle, the woman continues in her efforts to fill her Tesla with regular fuel, even inserting her credit card into the machine to pay for it, phoning someone for help, and accidentally opening the boot in the process.
Thankfully, after a few minutes of hysterical laughter from the car behind, another person gets out to help and inform the Tesla driver that, actually, her car doesn’t take gasoline, but electricity.
Check it out:
Earlier this year, Musk had to step down as chairman of Tesla after charges of alleged securities fraud were brought against him.
That didn’t seem to have an effect on Tesla’s progress, however, as shortly afterwards, in October, Tesla outsold Mercedes-Benz in the US for the first time ever.
It was reported that in the third quarter of this year, Tesla sold 69,925 vehicles in the US, whereas Mercedes-Benz sold 66,542.
According to Forbes, Tesla was also just 1,754 units shy of toppling fellow German big-dog, BMW.
Musk will remain as CEO of Tesla, but must resign from his position as chairman for at least a three-year period. The decision comes after a tweet made by the 47-year-old falsely suggested he had secured financing to privatise Tesla for a price of $420 per share.
The tweet is said to have led to Tesla’s stock price soaring by over six per cent the same day, causing huge market disruption. The subsequent securities fraud complaint led to shares dropping by over 13 per cent in after-hours trading.
The company will also have to pay a separate $20 million fine for failing to have had preventative disclosure controls and procedures in place.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.