Tesla's legal department in China continues its hard work to combat defamation against the company. The manufacturer reportedly is suing a woman who protested on the roof of a Tesla car at Auto Shanghai 2021 in China for significant brand damage. The damage to the manufacturer is estimated at CNY 5 million (about $700,000).
On March 19, many videos from the Auto Shanghai 2021 Show in China appeared online, in which a woman climbed onto the roof of a Model 3, exclaiming "Tesla brake failed me." This protest led to the Zhang Yazhou being detained for five days. All the data indicate that the driver was the culprit of the accident and did not agree to any compromises that Tesla offered her.
Police found the driver guilty after the father of a protesting woman crashed into two cars in February and injured two people in a Tesla Model 3. He was driving at 118.5 km/h (73 mph) in the local areas, well above the limit. In addition, the driver did not keep a safe distance from other vehicles, which also caused the accident. Nevertheless, despite the police report and information from Tesla, the woman continued to claim that the car had a brake system failure.
Despite the unsubstantiated statements, Tesla fully cooperated in the police investigation and also offered the client a car repair. The owner refused to have the car repaired and demanded a full refund and to be compensated for her loss of wages. The client also refused to have the car expertly examined by a third-party company. In March, she already organized a picket, accusing Tesla. Local authorities also mediated the settlement, but the client refused to make any compromises.
With the client continuing to blame Tesla, the company expressed its willingness to fully cooperate and provide the raw vehicle data half an hour before the incident to a third-party appraisal agency or technical oversight department designated by the government or consumers.
Tesla's employee in charge of resolving the accident told a reporter for China Market Supervision News that the company had already sent the data to the customer's email to the address she specified when purchasing the car. However, Yazhou didn't answer phone calls or emails. In order to finally clarify the situation, Tesla allowed for the publication of the vehicle data.
According to the published data, immediately before the accident, the car was moving at high speed, but the driver pressed the brake pedal with little force, for some time, which led to the fact that the vehicle did not stop before crashing into another vehicle. Only when the automatic emergency braking function was activated, the car began to decelerate rapidly, trying to avoid collision. Tesla's spokesman also said that 30 minutes before the incident, the brake system of the vehicle worked perfectly. The log has over 40 brake pedal records showing that the vehicle had stopped repeatedly after driving over 100 km/h (60 mph).
Despite all the data provided, which fully proves that the driver was the culprit of the accident, Yazhou continued to spread false information about Tesla and its cars. Tesla's legal team in China had already issued a warning to her that if she did not publish a public confession of false statements, the company would be forced to sue her to protect its good name. Apparently, Yazhou did not fulfill the requirements and will now face the consequences. @ray4tesla/Twitter has published information that Tesla has sued her for libel and is demanding compensation for damages in the amount of CNY 5 million and an apology.
Remember the high-profile roof-top protest incident back in April at Shanghai Auto Show. Now the protester says she is being sued by Tesla CN for defamation, demanding apology & retribution of 5 million CNY for brand damage. Separately another high-profile defamer is sued too. pic.twitter.com/ARgEIN3EdN
— Ray4Tesla⚡️🚘☀️🔋 (@ray4tesla) September 29, 2021
The Yazhou situation in March was the start of a large wave of false accusations against Tesla in China. In the following months, the number of false accusations on Chinese social media continued to grow, causing massive damage to Tesla's reputation. However, in June, the company created a dedicated legal department to fight people who dishonestly lied about the manufacturer and the quality of its vehicles. They sent out warning letters, after which many people publicly admitted that they had lied about the quality problems of Tesla cars. The facts of the Yazhou situation are and will be clear, and the perpetrator will be held to account accordingly.
© 2021, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
