Tesla’s handling of complaints from Chinese consumers makes it seem like criticism of the company has become the safest thing to do.
Earlier today, several media outlets reported that while Tesla was under intense pressure during the Shanghai auto show because a female owner stood on top of a car to protest “brake failure,” Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroen Automobile put on a ballet performance on its show car.
Some users said that Peugeot launched the show years ago, but this year it was particularly notable because of the Tesla controversy.
However, the video circulating on the Internet did not actually come from this Shanghai auto show.
Mydrivers.com quoted Dongfeng Peugeot as saying that the videos were shot during the Guangzhou International Auto Show last November and were edited by some users to look like this year’s video.
Performing a ballet on top of a car has been a traditional show for the company at auto shows, and Peugeot is currently debating whether to let it continue, the company said.
On April 19, at the Tesla booth at the Shanghai auto show, a woman wearing a T-shirt with the words “brake failure” stood on top of her car in protest, sparking widespread concern.
Then a Tesla China executive said “there is no way to compromise, this is a process that new products must go through” and stressed that “their own research shows that 90% of customers are willing to choose Tesla again”.
This tough statement was immediately criticized by a large number of Chinese Internet users. The official Chinese media Xinhua News Agency published an article questioning “who gave Tesla the courage to be ‘uncompromising'”.
Late on April 20, Tesla said on Weibo that it apologized for not being able to resolve owners’ problems in a timely manner.
