A brand new scathing report about Tesla simply got here out in China. It describes how the automaker is turning into trigger-happy, suing its personal prospects and the media whereas auto journalists are being instructed to not be detrimental concerning the American automaker.
To today, Tesla is the one international automaker with a wholly-owned automobile manufacturing unit in China, though Toyota is predicted to observe in a couple of years.
Elon Musk made the deal occur with Chinese language Communist Get together (CCP) officers again in 2018. Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai grew to become the corporate’s largest manufacturing hub and its largest income and revenue.
Tesla would by no means be the place it’s immediately with out Gigafactory Shanghai and the Chinese language market.
Now, we study that Tesla is keen to go to nice lengths to guard that.
The Related Press (AP) has simply launched a captivating in-depth report about Tesla’s actions in China relating to prospects and the media.
The report facilities round a brand new perspective on the extremely publicized battle between Tesla and one in every of its Chinese language prospects who claimed a brake defect, but it surely additionally goes deeper by highlighting a shit in Tesla’s method to criticism in China.
AP discovered that Tesla sued “a minimum of six automobile house owners in China who had sudden automobile malfunctions, high quality complaints or accidents they claimed have been brought on by mechanical failures.”
Tesla additionally sued “a minimum of six bloggers and two Chinese language media shops that wrote critically concerning the firm.”
That is extremely uncommon conduct for an automaker.
The report additionally highlights the shut relationship between Tesla and CCP officers, particularly Li Qiang, the previous occasion boss of Shanghai who’s now China’s premier. He was concerned within the Gigafactory Shanghai deal.
It’s not information that Tesla benefited from preferential therapy in China, however the report goes fairly a bit additional.
AP alleges that native media are instructed to not be detrimental on Tesla:
Tesla has profited from the largesse of the Chinese language state, profitable unprecedented regulatory advantages, below-market charge loans and huge tax breaks. With a couple of pointed exceptions, Tesla has loved largely ingratiating protection within the Chinese language press, and journalists instructed AP they’ve been instructed to keep away from detrimental protection of the automaker.
A reporter instructed AP:
“We have been instructed by our editor that we must always not write negatively about Tesla as a result of it’s a key firm that was launched and guarded by the Shanghai authorities.”
The report additionally explains how Tesla wins about 90% of the courtroom instances filed towards the automaker by prospects who declare a defect.
Many purchasers complained of Tesla’s lack of communication, resulting in submitting lawsuits.
In the event that they file lawsuits, they lose, and in the event that they complain publicly, they’re those getting sued by Tesla and compelled to pay the corporate and make a public apology.
Electrek’s Take
That’s fairly a report. It gave a brand new perspective on Ms. Zhang’s case. Her case made it to Western media in 2021-2022, however by no means with the extent of element on this report.
The information are she acquired into an accident. She claimed it was attributable to a brake failure. Tesla claimed it was attributable to a driver mistake.
She felt compelled to protest Tesla over what she noticed as a critical security problem. She was fairly persistent with it. Tesla sued her and received as a result of she had no strategy to show {that a} brake defect had triggered the accident. She was compelled to pay Tesla and make a public apology.
However we additionally realized that Tesla claimed that different entities have been backing her regardless of no proof of that in any way.
I feel there’s room for reflection on Tesla’s half right here. Is that this what it desires to be: an organization that sues its prospects and media over criticism?
Like some prospects stated within the report, Tesla might have averted a lot that by merely having higher communications with prospects.
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