Bad luck for those who ordered one of these two Tesla Model X SUVs; they were dead and destroyed on arrival. The top floor of a large car transport truck suddenly collapsed, sending the two heavy electrics to the bottom.

The accident happened during loading. The top floor collapsed to the left side.

The cars had freshly arrived in China, they had just come off the boat in the port city of Tianjin. They are official imports, not gray market cars.

We have long said that these trucks are very unsafe. It might work with light mini vans and stuff, but the Model X weights around 2500 kilo a piece. A crappy Chinese car transport just can’t handle that.

This car seems beyond repair. It still has the green shipping-stickers on its body. A costly drama as the X is very expensive in China. Price starts at 904.000 yuan and ends at 1.4 million yuan ($131.000 – 203.000). Happily, the lower deck of the truck wasn’t loaded yet.

Ouch! And the transport company is likely going to feel some pain too. Many of these companies work on a minimal budget without insurance and with deadly tired drivers who make shifts of more than 12 hours a day. Ownership of these businesses is misty at best, and they tend to disappear into nowhere when things go wrong. Tesla is going to have a hard time getting its money…

Note the tiny rear lights of the truck.

Another transporter on the other side of the road. So far so good…

Photos via Weibo.