Tesla’s quality issues and complaints of the cars made at its Shanghai plant is quickly snowballing into a proper PR disaster for the American EV manufacturer. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been severely criticized for the way he has been handling customer complaints. Many Tesla fans have been asking the billionaire to reinstate the company’s PR department; however, Elon Musk continues to say no. Tired of not being listened to, some Tesla owners in China have been forced to install cameras to prove quality issues with the cars which are otherwise pinned on driving error by Tesla. It all started when a woman climbed on the top of a Model 3 at Tesla’s booth at the Auto Shanghai 2021 trade show to protest her car’s brake malfunction. The woman named Zhang Yazhou who owns a Tesla Model 3 met with an accident back in February. While the Tesla owner claims that the accident was caused because of a brake malfunction, the EV manufacturer’s China division has initially blamed Zhang for the incident saying she had crashed her car because she was speeding.
A female Tesla owner climbed on top of a car’s roof at the Tesla booth to protest her car’s brake malfunction at the Shanghai auto show Monday. The booth beefed up its security after the incident. pic.twitter.com/ct7RmF1agM
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) April 19, 2021
While the authorities in China have pulled up Tesla for the incident and asked the company to respect Chinese consumers and comply with local laws and regulations, some Tesla owners took matters into their own hands and decided to install a camera to record the brake pedal in their vehicles. Chinese website Fast Technology published few pictures of Tesla vehicles with a camera pointing towards the brake pedal. The website claims that these Tesla owners don’t want the company to blame them for bad driving in case their vehicles get into an accident because of brake malfunction. Pressure has been mounting on Tesla to address the quality complaints, but it continues to damage its image in China.
This mall has banned Teslas from parking in its lots. Security guard says, “Go and fix your brakes first, then come back.” Tesla China PR needs to address this better. pic.twitter.com/0Gauca8aL0
— Taylor Ogan (@TaylorOgan) April 26, 2021
In fact, a Twitter user posted a video that shows a mall in China denying parking space to a Tesla owner because of a brake-malfunction issue. A security guard can be seen demanding the owner to get the brakes fixed before parking there. There was also a rumor that the city of Guangzhou was planning to ban Teslas, but the local authorities denied such reports calming them to be false. Last year, Tesla’s Model 3 was the best-selling electric car in China. Let’s hope the company pays heed to the customer feedback and complaints before it’s too late.
[Via: InsideEVs]
