Tesla Inc apologised to Chinese consumers for not addressing a customer’s complaints in a timely way, and said it would launch a review of its service operations in the world’s biggest auto market. The unusual public apology from Tesla followed criticism in state media, and an incident at the Shanghai auto show that got wide attention in China’s social media. An unhappy customer by clambered atop a Tesla at the auto show to protest the company’s handling of her complaints about malfunctioning brakes.
Videos that went viral on Monday showed a woman wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “The brakes don’t work” and shouting similar accusations while staff and security struggled to restore calm.
The trouble for Tesla in China overlapped with new questions in the United States about the safety of the company’s Autopilot partially-automated driving systems. Police in Texas are investigating a fatal crash involving a Tesla Model S that hit a tree and burst into flames.
