Photo: LSDBunnos via Reddit
Tesla began deliveries of the refreshed Model 3 in the United States in January, but production has been slowly ramping up. Reports have indicated that the Model 3 may not sell as well as Tesla wanted, and a recent report seems to support that theory. Dozens, if not hundreds, of refreshed Tesla Model 3 EVs have been spotted in a field near Tampa, Florida, and they appear to have been there for a long time.
Last year, several stories about electric vehicle graveyards in China made the rounds on social media. Many people believed that the Electric vehicle the bubble was bursting in China and those electric cars were no longer wanted, so they were left to rot in parking lots and fields. Then, earlier this year, similar stories started popping up in Vietnam, claiming that VinFast had been faking sales of its EVs when in reality they were abandoned in storage areas.
However, China and Vietnam aren’t the only countries where unsold EVs are piling up in parking lots. Even in the United States, unsold EV inventory at traditional automakers (primarily Ford) has led to excess parking lots littered with cars. Stories like this have been making the rounds throughout 2023, with Ford even considering leasing unsold EVs to customers.
While Tesla fans would like to believe that only traditional automakers have this kind of problem, their beloved brand is facing a similar situation. This is primarily the case for the refreshed Model 3, with inventory having grown significantly since April, when production ramped up at Tesla Fremont. It’s unclear how successful the refreshed Model 3 has been, given that Tesla reports combined Model 3 and Model Y data. Judging by some images recently shared on Reddit, not much.
The photos were taken in a field in Lutz, Florida, about 10 minutes south of the Tampa Bay Service Center. The vehicles were all refurbished Model 3s, and the VINs show they were built in April and May. However, they appeared to have been left there for quite some time, considering the grass had grown around them tall enough to cover half the height of the wheels.
It’s unclear whether these are engineering vehicles or cars waiting for a customer. Interestingly, the photographer mentioned that the paint quality on most of the vehicles was very poor, with paint chipping, grainy, or just very thin, in some cases exposing the primer. This suggests that these Model 3s were likely rejected by the people who ordered them and Tesla forgot about them. This isn’t a far-fetched assumption, considering Tesla’s massive layoffs this spring.
Even stranger, the poster also claims to have seen several vehicles with mismatched seats, such as white for the driver and black for the passenger. This reminded me of another story shared on Reddit by a customer who ordered a Model 3 with a white interior and received the car with a black door cover instead of the rest of it in white. Whatever the case, this adds substance to the claim that these could be rejected vehicles.