GM Plant Security Mistakes Tesla For Foreign-Made Vehicle, Tickets Owner For “Foreign In Domestic Lot”
It’s Saturday, so how about a fun/funny story?
The idea that a Tesla isn’t an American car is not only a myth, but is a surprisingly common one. It can even be problematic. One Tesla owner got a parking ticket due to this myth. The Drive reports that a parking attendant at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Missouri ticketed the owner of a Tesla that was parked there. The ticket claimed that the car was “Foreign in domestic lot,” meaning that the Tesla vehicle wasn’t made in the United States. The parking lot is only for “American-made cars.”
The article noted that the parking slip was shared in a Facebook group. For now, that post isn’t available, and this could be due to the group’s or the user’s privacy settings changing. The article also noted that some automakers do have brand-specific parking and that GM is one of those that do. GM gave the following statement to The Drive:
“Wentzville, like many of our manufacturing sites, has a parking policy and designated parking locations for GM vehicles, non-GM domestic vehicles, and foreign nameplates.
“Plant security inadvertently thought the Tesla was a foreign car and wrote a ticket accordingly.”
GM also told The Drive that these tickets don’t have a financial penalty, only a warning.
Tesla Model 3 Most American Car of 2021
Ironically, not only is Tesla an American car company, but Cars.com recently crowned Tesla’s Model 3 as the most American car of 2021. Tesla has a factory in Shanghai and is building one in Germany, which could confuse someone who isn’t familiar with the brand, but Tesla’s first factories were built right here in the U.S.A. and the company is also headquartered here. Some people are still not familiar with Tesla, though, or may well think that it is one of the many exotic European brands that wealthy Americans sometimes buy.
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