Tesla Apologizes After Blaming China’s State Grid for Damaged Battery

Despite Tesla’s major growth around the world, there are still some battery-related risks associated with electric vehicles (EVs), so it’s important for us to remember they’re still in their infancy.

On Monday, Bloomberg (via Caixin) reported that Tesla publicly apologized to the State Grid Corporation of China, following a viral undercover video where a Tesla staff member explains a customer’s battery was damaged as a result of an overload in the national grid.

The state grid overloading was, allegedly, just one of many explanations provided to the customer, although it was also the only part of the conversation to go viral.

https://twitter.com/LichtSpektrum/status/1356107004620677121

The owner shared with a Tesla employee that the new EV wouldn’t start following a charge at a charging station, to which the employee seems to blame the state grid and its hardware for the problem.

In response, the power company’s branch in Nanchang denied the allegations, claiming instead that their “power grid has been operating at a stable voltage, and no abnormality has been detected.”

Following the denial, Tesla responded with an apology, claiming that the video had, in fact, not included other explanations for why the customer’s inverter had burned out.

In a follow-up video on Weibo, Tesla said, “We are deeply sorry for the misunderstanding and would like to apologize to the Nanchang Power Grid for the inconvenience caused.” The company continued, “We have already resolved the problem with the customer and are carrying out tests and investigations on the cause of this failure.”