Tesla Recalls Nearly 300,000 Cars In China For Safety Issues

Tesla has already created it abundance of bad press in China this year, with officials scrutinizing their customer data management and protests claiming that the complaints of Chinese customers are ignored. The electric car maker added another controversy to the list this weekend: China’s market regulator says Tesla is warning nearly 300,000 vehicles about the safety risks for vehicle cruise control systems, which are seemingly easy to activate by accident.

As well as in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters report, China’s state administration for Market Regulation said Saturday that the recall includes 249,855 Model 3 sedans and Model Y compact crossover vehicles made at the Tesla factory in Shanghai, as well as 35,665 imported Model 3 cars, all produced between December 2019 and June 2021. The recall — a first for Tesla cars built in China- can be completed remotely via the web with a software upgrades to active vehicle cruise control systems, which Tesla provides for free.

“We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this recall to all car owners,” Tesla said through its official account on Weibo, China’s equivalent on Twitter, according to the Journal. “Tesla will continue to improve safety in strict accordance with national requirements.”

After an inquiry into possible defects, the Chinese regulator said vehicle cruise control systems could be activated by accident, causing the vehicle to accelerate unexpectedly. A Tesla spokesman denied the Journal’s request for comment.

This record is the latest in a series of PR fires that Tesla has had to put out while trying to judge the largest electric vehicle market in the world. Last October, Tesla recalled nearly 30,000 Model S and Model X vehicles imported from China due to problems with vehicle suspension systems. Concerns that the company vehicles can be used to spy around led China to ban Tesla cars from its military sites and some local government institutions are reviewing it Tesla property among its staff, Bloomberg report. Faced with pressure from the Chinese government, Tesla has established a data center in China in May to store data collected from their customers ’vehicles in the country –apparently in an attempt to stay on the right side of Pibberu’s laws on cybersecurity. Protesters also supported Tesla’s presentation at the Shanghai Motor Show this year to draw attention to the Chinese customer complaints about problems with their cars.

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