The aftermath of the Tesla controversy in China began when Ms. Zhang stood on top of a Tesla car to defend her rights on the opening day of the Shanghai Auto Show. However, some netizens discovered that she entered the show with a pass that said “Webasto”. The car parts supplier “Webasto” is the supplier of Tesla’s rival, Azera. The car that picked up Ms. Zhang when she arrived in Shanghai that day “just happened” to be an Azera car, making the incident even more confusing.
On April 19, a woman surnamed Zhang from Henan entered the Shanghai Auto Show on media day, wearing a white dress with a Tesla logo and the words “brake failure” written on it, and rushed up to the Tesla booth, standing on top of the Tesla car and shouting “Tesla brake failure!” The incident drew national attention, and the media quickly scoured Tesla’s “accident” reports, with Chinese official media blasting Tesla in high-profile statements, elevating the rights issue to a brand PR disaster.
After Ms. Zhang was released from detention, she continued to speak out on Weibo under the account “Coral in Freshwater”, but netizens “found” her ShakeYin account with the same name and discovered that she had uploaded a video, one of which showed what they suspected was her pass to enter the auto show that day. The video shows what is suspected to be the pass she used to enter the auto show that day, with the words “Webster” appearing on it. The netizens suspect that her pass may have been provided by the auto parts supplier “Webster”, which explains why she was able to get in on the press day of the auto show.
It’s no coincidence that the netizens also found another video on the same ShakeTV account showing Ms. Zhang arriving in Shanghai and being picked up in a car that “just happened” to be an Azera. This also reminded the outside world of Tesla’s global vice president Tao Lin’s comment, “I think she is also very professional, there should be (someone) behind it.”
While some of the videos were deleted after the material was exposed, Ms. Zhang did not deny having posted the footage. She explained on Weibo that she had taken a ride in a Tesla rights activist’s car after arriving in Shanghai, saying that he was the owner of both the car and the Tesla, stressing that the fact that she had taken a ride in a car of any brand did not mean that they were supporters of her rights activism. She also said that the media day pass is a real name application, and by the auto show staff led to the venue, “open and legitimate, reasonable and legal”.
Her explanation, however, paled in the eyes of some netizens, who left messages blasting, “You’re just trying to blackmail us Tesla owners to get told off every day,” and “How many times have you lied? There is inertia in lying. If you tell one lie, you have to use a hundred lies to round it up.
For its part, Webasto issued a statement saying that it only provided a single day pass for some media on that day for the media day, stressing that the company and its staff had nothing to do with the rights issue and the people. Weibuster also emphasized that it has never participated or promoted any third party to participate in a brand’s rights defense.
Tesla’s rise to the forefront, domestic cars lose competitiveness
Vibaster, a supplier of auto parts, has a number of Chinese car brands as customers, including the Chinese electric car brand Azera, which has been described as Tesla’s strongest competitor in China.
A review of mainland car sales websites shows that the domestic Azera ES8 electric car, which has an upscale range of 580 kilometers and is considered the top of the line among domestic electric cars, costs about 460,000 to 620,000 yuan.
But Tesla plans to launch the M3 EV, which is recognized to surpass the Azera EV in performance, but the price will be as low as 240,000 RMB, in other words, the top domestic EV will be completely uncompetitive.
(Original title: Tesla’s rights of the female identity called out for the dying rival “porcelain” Tesla?
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