Taxi drivers driving the Neta electric vehicle brand are accusing its dealer, Kuenphen Motors, of deceiving them about the price, features, and mileage the electric vehicle offers. The drivers say features promised to them during booking is different from when the vehicle was delivered. Frustrated, the EV drivers have lodged a complaint with the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority about three months ago. They are yet to hear about what action the authority has taken.
About 40 Neta EV taxi drivers filed the complaint about the car’s price, mileage and features to the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority.
“When we complained about mileage, the company said that with constant driving, the mileage will increase. It has been almost a year and the mileage is the same. And even the distributor accepted that the vehicle is giving 384-kilometre mileage on a full charge instead of 401 kilometres,” said Ugyen Dorji, a taxi driver.
“The price of the first batch of the vehicle was Nu 2.055 M and the price of second batch increased to Nu 2.085 M. When we came to book the vehicle initially, the price they mentioned was Nu 1.9 million and 85,000,” said Ugyen, another taxi driver.
Meanwhile, the owner of Kuenphen Motors, which distributes both Neta and MG electric vehicle brands say they have submitted all facts and figures along with global pricing systems to the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority and that they do not have any comment on the matter until the authority comes out with a finding.
According to the chief trade officer with the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority, the office tried to mediate the dispute, however, there has been no consensus and the case is now with the authority’s Dispute Settlement Committee.
Likewise, according to a coordinator among EV taxi drivers, a similar complaint about MG electric vehicles has also been filed to the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority.
Today there are more than 250 EV taxis in the country.
Ugyen Dorji
Edited by Sherub Dorji
