A Chinese female Tesla owner was detained by police for 5 days yesterday for protesting the Tesla car accident controversy at the Tesla exhibit at the Shanghai Auto Show, sparking public debate. The official media Xinhua News Agency today issued an article criticizing Tesla executives for their “arrogance” in responding after the incident, stressing that if the car company is “bullying customers”, it should strengthen supervision. Previously, under the intervention of Zhengzhou Market Supervision Bureau, Zhang had coordinated with Tesla, but Zhang refused to hand over to a national third-party agency to conduct tests to determine the cause of the accident. Tesla China issued a statement last night, stressing that it would not compromise on unreasonable claims.
The female owner made a fuss about the Shanghai auto show, according to the Central News Agency, which said Xinhua counter-criticized Tesla executives for their arrogance. The report quoted Chinese media as saying that a woman wearing a T-shirt with “brake failure” on it climbed on top of a car and shouted “Tesla brake failure” at the Tesla exhibit at the Shanghai International Auto Show on the morning of the 19th, sparking a crowd of spectators. The woman was then pulled down by staff and eventually taken away by police, making her the hottest news in mainland China. The Shanghai Public Security Bureau Qingpu Branch reported after the incident that the actions of the 32-year-old woman surnamed Zhang caused some damage to the vehicle. The woman was sentenced to five days of administrative detention for disturbing public order.
According to the news, the father of the female owner of the disturbance, Zhang, drove a Tesla electric car in February this year, chasing two cars from behind in succession, and finally hit a concrete guardrail on the roadside before stopping, and the occupants of the car were injured. Zhang accused the vehicle brake failure afterwards, Tesla cited the background data, that the brakes when the vehicle speed of 118.5 kilometers per hour, no brake braking abnormalities. The two sides have so far failed to coordinate, Zhang has been several times public rights protest.
After the female owner Zhang was taken away from the scene yesterday, Tesla China’s vice president Tao Lin said in an interview with the land media Caijing Auto, “the recent negative are her contribution”, “we have no way to compromise, is a new product development is bound to go through a process”, “our own research shows that the vehicle’s braking speed of 118 kilometers. “Our own research shows that 90% of our customers are willing to choose Tesla again”. Tao Lin also questioned Zhang’s daughter: “I think she is also very professional, there should be (someone) behind it.”
In response, Xinhua Daily News, a subsidiary of Xinhua News Agency, published a commentary today criticizing Tesla executives for such an arrogant response that gives little sense of sincerity in solving the problem, the report said. The Xinhua commentary said the extreme way of defending rights is not worth encouraging, but as some netizens said, “If consumers can smoothly defend their rights, who would risk standing on top of a car to do so?” If car companies can’t provide quality products and good after-sales service, can’t guarantee consumers safe driving, or even maliciously guess the motives of rights defenders, they may smash their own signboards.
The Xinhua commentary also said that China is one of the world’s largest auto production and sales markets, and an important market for globally renowned car companies to compete for. “No matter which car companies are involved, they must have respect for the Chinese market and sincerely accept consumer supervision.” The commentary concluded by stressing that if car companies are suspected of “bullying customers”, the authorities should also strengthen supervision.
According to the Central News Agency, this is not the first time Xinhua criticized Tesla’s arrogance. in November 2020, Xinhua issued an article criticizing Tesla for recalling vehicles with safety risks in China, but denied to U.S. officials that the vehicles had problems, and also dumped the responsibility on Chinese regulators to pressure and abuse by Chinese owners, “such unreasonable arrogance can not be accustomed.”
According to Reuters today reported that the U.S. electric car manufacturer – Tesla Motors in the opening of the Shanghai Auto Show on Monday encountered owners’ rights, the owner once climbed on the roof of a show car, and then taken away by the police, sparking widespread public concern.
Tesla responded with two consecutive posts on its official microblog that day, saying that it cherishes every customer, and if it is a problem with Tesla products, it must be resolutely responsible to the end, the compensation for the compensation, the penalty; but the company also said, “No compromise on unreasonable claims, the same is our attitude.”
According to Tesla yesterday afternoon on Twitter, the owner had previously been involved in a collision due to speeding violations, and later insisted on the return of the car on the grounds of product quality. The company has been actively negotiating with the owner for nearly two months, expressing its willingness to assist in completing testing, repairs or insurance claims, while proposing a variety of solutions, but since the owner does not accept any form of third-party testing and strongly refuses all the options proposed, related matters can only be communicated continuously. Late that night, Tesla issued another microblog, pointing out that for all the questions and concerns about the safety of Tesla products, the company is always willing to cooperate fully with the national third-party authority for all-round testing. However, this wish has not been realized so far, mainly because there may be some problems in the way the company communicates with users, and secondly because the company really can’t decide for customers which way to solve the problem.
The company also said that consumers and companies are equal in terms of jurisprudence, no matter what claims they express. Only when both sides communicate and solve the problem in a reasonable and legal way is it really a fair and equitable way for both consumers and companies.
According to Tesla, “We will do our best to give you a satisfactory answer to the specific demands of our customers.”
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