Wednesday April 21, 2021
Massive pressure from Beijing
Tesla apologizes to Chinese
A woman gets on a Tesla “Model 3” at an auto show in China and complains loudly about the company. At Tesla, their protest is initially dismissed. Videos of the action, however, go viral. When the government intervenes, the automaker finally gives in.
After an incident at the Shanghai auto show, the US car maker Tesla came under pressure in China. The company eventually apologized for “not resolving a customer’s problem quickly enough”. State media spoke of an initially “presumptuous attitude” on the part of the car manufacturer, which had shown itself to be “uncompromising” in its initial reaction. The controversy began with a protest by the woman at an auto show.
The woman got on a “Model 3” car at the Tesla booth last Monday and loudly complained about brake failure. She was taken away by security guards. Videos from the protest went viral. So far, Tesla has not known any problems with the brakes, but in response, customers complained about other defects in their cars.
The US manufacturer first rejected the woman’s allegation. She is already known for her protests. But then the state agency Xinhua commented that the quality of Tesla had to meet expectations in order to win the trust of consumers. The Communist Party’s powerful Legal Commission also got involved, demanding respect for Chinese consumers and accusing Tesla of not investigating the cause of the problem.
Under such pressure, the company now apologized and promised to “actively listen to the opinions, suggestions and criticism of our customers, Internet users and friends in the media”. Tesla wants to “look for solutions with an upright posture”.
The company, which built a factory in Shanghai, is seeing rapid sales in China. In 2020 Tesla sold 140,000 “Model 3” – around one eighth of all e-cars sold in China.
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