Tesla is facing a bit of a setback in China after an unfortunate customer crashed his garage in Shanghai and was arrested.
While Tesla does not use car shows to debut vehicles like other car manufacturers, the California carmaker is still attending some of the more prestigious car sessions to showcase its current vehicle range.
The Shanghai Motor Show is one of them, but it did not go well for Tesla this year.
Eventually, an angry customer protested at Tesla’s booth at the show by jumping on the show cars and complaining about Tesla’s ‘brakes not working’.
Part of the incident was captured on video and posted on social media:
Local Chinese media reported that the owner was arrested and placed in “police custody” for five days:
Two men forcibly removed the woman from Tesla’s stand by grabbing her arms and legs. The woman has now been in police custody for five days.
The nature of her complaint is unclear, but she was apparently involved in an accident with her Tesla and she believes the brakes are not working properly.
People on social media were upset about the fact that she was dragged out and detained by the police, but a reaction from Tesla apparently made matters worse.
Tesla has issued a reaction that has started to trend on social media in China, and the majority of the sentiment was apparently negative.
Global Times reported that many commentators thought Tesla was “arrogant”:
But it was the company’s comments about the incident that woke up Chinese social media. The company said it “acknowledges meaningful criticism”, but at the same time that “it will not compromise to meet unreasonable demands.”
This is the second controversy in a few weeks that has caused Tesla to scramble in China to improve customer perception.
The carmaker’s data collection in the country also attracted media attention earlier this month.
Tesla issued a statement saying they would ensure that the data collected in China would remain in the country.
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