“This confiscation of license plates constitutes a discriminatory attack without any support in law directed at Tesla,” the American electric car giant wrote in documents submitted to the Norrköping district court on Monday seen by the Dagens industri newspaper. 

“Tesla demands that the district court obliges the Swedish Transport Agency to ensure that registration plates for the vehicles owned by Tesla, which have been registered in accordance with the regulation (2019:383) on vehicle registration and use, and which have been assigned a registration number by the Swedish Transport Agency, come into Tesla’s possession,” court documents read. 

A sympathy strike by postal workers in support of unionised Tesla workers has put a stop to deliveries of number plates to Tesla’s workshops in Sweden, meaning it can no longer sell new cars. 

IF Metall, Sweden’s metalworkers union, launched a strike at the end of October in protest at the company’s refusal to strike a collective bargaining agreement with around 130 mechanics at its workshops.

The strike has escalated, with sympathy strikes by dockworkers in both Sweden and Norway, and by postal workers, making it increasingly difficult for the company to operate.  

The Swedish Transport Agency, which is responsible for registering new cars and issuing number plates in Sweden, was not in a position to comment on Tesla’s move on Monday morning. 

“We can only confirm the information in the media so far. We have not yet seen any of the documents,” the agency’s press chief Mikael Andersson told the TT newswire. 

“We do not yet know how they are arguing or reasoning, but we are of course going to eventually be in a position to answer from our side.” 

According to the Transport Agency, current regulations mean it is only able to distribute number plates using Postnord.