Following reports of Tesla owner complaints to China’s regulator, the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) maker has changed its direction with regards to dealing with the country’s regulator.
According to industry sources, Tesla is bolstering its government relations team and is increasing engagement with China’s regulators, as reported by Reuters.
The increased focus on interacting directly with regulators behind closed doors emphasizes the importance of China as the world’s largest auto market, and the need for Tesla to succeed within the country.
In the past four weeks, Tesla executives have been present at four policy discussions with China’s regulator, including topics like auto data storage, vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, recycling, and emissions, according to the sources.
Nio and Xpeng Report Record-Breaking Q1 in China, But Tesla Still on Top https://t.co/lxY6Cscl3e
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) April 1, 2021
The news comes after multiple reports of quality-control complaints about Tesla, including a recent protest at Auto Shanghai in which a woman jumped on top of a Model 3, alleging that faulty brakes almost killed members of her family. The event garnered significant attention across the internet, from a post originally shared on Weibo.
Tesla responded to the incident and later released traffic data from the crash, which showed that speed had been a factor, more so than brakes.
Despite unwarranted concerns over brake issues, many social media posts shared in China recently have shown Teslas emerging as the only vehicles that applied brakes in accidents on roads.
Another “brake failure” incident happened on 5/2 in China. Model Y came to complete stop just in time while the car behind couldn’t. Shared by Tesla Owners of Chongqing. @elonmusk @teslacn pic.twitter.com/48yS9xVi0Q
— Ray (@ray4tesla) May 3, 2021
Tesla’s cars were also prohibited for government and military personnel earlier this year after security concerns arose about the company’s use of in-cabin footage. Tesla later confirmed that it plans to store Chinese data on servers in China, signifying that it has no plans to spy on behalf of the U.S. or any other country.
