Originally published on CleanTechnica.
Editor’s Update: Tesla.fr redirected to the BMW i site this morning when I saw the post on the Tesla Motors Club forum, but it is no longer doing so, with only the BMW favicon still showing in the browser bar. So, I’m assuming whoever was engaging in these shenanigans apparently had a change of heart, or BMW somehow blocked the redirect, or some other third party stepped in to block the redirect.
Domain squatting is nothing new. And I’m sure that there are people who have made literally tons of money off the looked-down-upon money-making strategy — even if many have also been sued into oblivion.
If you’ll recall, Tesla has already had some trouble in China with this sort of activity. Similar trouble seems to be latent in the French market as well, with Tesla.fr apparently being owned by someone looking to eventually sell the custom domain name.
A post this morning on the Tesla Motors Club forum by “fren” brought the situation to our attention — revealing that the Tesla.fr domain redirects to the BMW i website.
Maintaining a site that’s well monetized would probably be a better strategy, so that funds continue to come in while a sale is put together, in my opinion. So, who knows what the owner is thinking. Tesla.fr probably gets quite a fair bit of traffic….
Any thoughts to share?