Tesla’s concerns in China boils from a pot whose ingredients include quality and security concerns. To who? You may ask. Well, the Chinese government has been on Elon Musk’s electric vehicle for a long time now. In 2019, Tesla recalled more than 14,000 model S of its cars in China due to quality concerns. The cars which were produced between 2014 and 2016 had defective airbags that could blow randomly, as the Chinese watchdog reported.
The same year, Tesla announced its strict compliance with the Chinese government regulations after quality concerns from consumers. Tesla recalled more than 20000 cars that year after consumers complained of acceleration malfunctions, battery fires and software upgrade failures.
In Feb 2021, Tesla made another apologetic announcement to the Chinese state grid after a consumers car was damaged during recharging. After a new model 3 EV was damaged in a video that went viral, a Tesla employee is captured blaming the Chinese power grid for an unstable power voltage. The employee insisted that the charge station’s non-uniform current was the cause of the car’s damage.
After a while, Tesla announced their apology after the Chinese power grid denied the allegations of an unstable voltage. Tesla made the announcement in their video saying–
“We are deeply sorry for the misunderstanding and would like to apologize to the Nanchang Power Grid for the inconvenience caused. We have already resolved the problem with the customer and are carrying out tests and investigations on the cause of this failure.”
Well, you get the catch, right? Despite hitting the ground running in the Chinese market, Tesla seems to be on its toes and constantly falling on the wrong side with the Chinese government.
Today, China has banned the use of Tesla Electric Vehicle by the Military, state employees or any other sensitive organization. According to the Street Wall Journal, Tesla posses a security threat to the Chinese government posed by the electric automaker’s data collection. Tesla’s ability to continuously record footage even after the driver alights concerns the Chinese government if the images are sent back to the US.
As Reuters also report, the Chinese Military prohibits the Electric Vehicle from its premises, quoting that the vehicle’s cameras pose a security threat.
Tesla is among the companies caught up in the US-China trade war mixup. Like Huawei, and what weve seen so far, Tesla’s sale, dominance, and smooth dealings in China lie in the balance.