AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/04 Report--

Us electric carmaker Tesla is stepping up its contacts with Chinese regulators, strengthening its government relations team and having more behind-the-scenes exchanges with policy makers in Beijing, Reuters reported. it shows that Tesla believes that he has suffered a setback in the Chinese market.

Regulators in China, the world's largest auto market, are discussing industry policies and standards with global and local companies, industry associations and think tanks.

Carmakers usually attend such meetings in China, but unlike competitors such as Toyota and General Motors, Tesla executives rarely attend closed-door meetings, according to people familiar with the matter. In the past few weeks, however, Tesla executives have participated in at least four discussions on topics including car data storage, car-to-infrastructure communications technology, car recycling and carbon emissions. Tesla did not make any major promises at the meeting and only participated in some discussions. As of press time, Tesla did not respond to the relevant reports.

The position of Tesla in the Chinese market is self-evident. According to the first-quarter financial report released by Tesla, the operating income during the reporting period was US $10.389 billion, of which the Chinese market was US $3.043 billion, accounting for 29.29%. Global car delivery is 185000, of which more than 69000 Model 3 and Model Y are sold in China, accounting for 38 per cent. Although the Chinese market is Tesla's second largest market in the world, the size gap between the Chinese market and the US market is narrowing further according to the financial data in the first quarter.

Tesla's sales volume in the Chinese market has repeatedly reached new highs, but Tesla's reputation has declined and quality problems have emerged one after another. On February 8 this year, the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration, together with the Central Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transportation, and the Fire Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management, jointly interviewed Tesla Automobile (Beijing) Co., Ltd., Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., regarding abnormal acceleration, battery fire, vehicle remote upgrade (OTA) and other issues reported by consumers.

In April this year, Tesla caused the first public relations crisis in China, which attracted a lot of attention in China. At the 2021 Shanghai International Auto Show, a female car owner climbed onto the roof of Tesla's exhibition car and shouted "Tesla's brakes failed" to protest Tesla's arrogant attitude in the process of safeguarding his rights. Tao Lin, vice president of foreign affairs of Tesla, questioned the motivation of car owners to safeguard their rights at the auto show when interviewed by the media. Since then, Tao Lin and Tesla have been named and criticized by several state media and regulators.

Since the incident of safeguarding the rights of the auto show, there have been more and more reports about the accident of Tesla. According to the official Weibo "Tesla customer support" statistics, since the rights incident occurred on the 19th, Tesla issued a total of three accident announcements: April 24, Guangzhou Zengcheng District, a Tesla hit the cement isolation zone and caught fire, the accident killed one person, officials said that the whole vehicle was operated by the driver, accelerated overtaking occurred before the accident, and a collision occurred in the overtaking process. On April 25, a traffic accident occurred when Tesla was passing through the parking lot gate in Xiamen, Fujian Province. Officials said the vehicle did not have a brake system failure before the accident. On May 3, a Tesla accident occurred in the underground parking lot of a commercial building in Huangpu District, Guangzhou. The airbag in the car did not eject at the time of the accident, and the person concerned was sent to hospital for medical treatment. Officials said that the vehicle was controlled by the driver all the time. The failure of the vehicle braking system was not found before the accident.

Is there something wrong with Tesla's brakes? At present, there is no direct evidence to prove that Tesla has this defect, but in the face of frequent accidents, Tesla's products are actually controversial. If Tesla does not properly address relevant concerns, in this context, even if some people are willing to buy Tesla, they dare not buy it. In addition, Tesla's attitude in dealing with the problem is also surprising. For example, Tao Lin, vice president of the world, said that she would not compromise, which directly angered netizens, and some state media also came forward to name Tesla. Had it not been for the pressure of public opinion, Tesla might not have compromised easily.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat