Tesla CEO Elon Musk Visits Norway to Address Service Capacity Issues
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk visited Norway to accelerate a fix to service capacity in a key market for the carmaker after delays and bottlenecks angered customers in Scandinavia’s richest nation.
Musk’s stay in Norway was part of a broader trip through Europe that the CEO advertised on Twitter on Feb. 9 as the company is deploying its new Model 3 on the continent after a tumultuous year in 2018.
A country of just more than 5 million people, Norway is nevertheless Tesla’s third-biggest market thanks to generous incentives for low-emission vehicles and high taxes on regular cars. But a lack of capacity for maintenance and repairs has led to long queues, raising more questions about whether the company is able to keep up with its own growth.
Just left Zeebrugge, now Tilburg, then Tesla HQ in Amsterdam & Oslo tonight to review service in Norway. Exciting to see thousands of Model 3’s on their way to owners in Europe! pic.twitter.com/PeRo4jhiCB
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2019
Musk had “constructive meetings” with the Norwegian service team’s management over the weekend, Even Sandvold Roland, a local Tesla spokesman, said in an e-mail reply to questions.
“Tesla Norway has taken significant measures to improve its service capacity in 2018, including doubling the number of service employees,” the spokesman said. “The meetings have focused on how this positive development can be accelerated further.”
Musk was no longer in Norway on Feb. 11, the spokesman said. He declined to provide details on what sites Musk had visited, which executives he had met and any goals for further staff hires, as well as the number of Model 3 cars that are expected to be delivered to Norwegian customers.
Norwegian media reported that Musk visited the company’s offices in Oslo on Feb. 10.
