Tesla looks to be coming under increasing pressure in China with two government entities firing off missives about the company's behaviour and treatment of its customers in a single day.
The trouble started early on Tuesday when China’s state-run Xinhua news agency released a piece that said the quality of Tesla’s electric vehicles must meet market expectations in order to win consumers’ trust.
The Palo Alto, California-based company should address consumer hesitation over purchasing its cars after issues ranging from malfunctioning brakes to blazes during the vehicles' charging emerged, the article said.
A few hours later, the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee weighed in, posting a commentary on its WeChat account that said the automaker should respect Chinese consumers and comply with local laws and regulations.
Making an effort to find the cause of problems and improve features is something any responsible business should do, and Tesla hasn’t done that, the Communist Party body that oversees China’s police, prosecutors and courts said.
Auto show incident
The blowback would appear to stem from an embarrassing incident Tesla faced on Monday at the Shanghai Auto Show, one of the world’s premier car events. An angry protester climbed on top of one of its display vehicles shouting that her car’s brakes had lost control.
She was live-streaming earlier from near Tesla’s booth before staging her protest, which was captured by scores of onlookers who then uploaded the footage to the internet, helping it to go viral on social media. Tesla’s booth at the show on Tuesday had a noticeably increased security presence.
The woman, a Tesla owner from Henan, “is widely known for having repeatedly protested against Tesla’s brake issue”, the company said on Monday, adding that it will work on solutions but “never compromise against unreasonable demands”. She will be detained for five days, local police said.
– Bloomberg