Tesla protest at Shanghai Auto Show 2021 ends with woman dragged off by security after climbing onto car and shouting
- A woman in China claims her Tesla’s brakes malfunctioned, causing her car to crash
- The company denies this and said the car was speeding, but has refused to release all of the car’s data from the crash
Video on Chinese social media showed the woman at the Shanghai Auto Show 2021 standing on a Tesla sedan wearing a white T-shirt marked with Chinese characters reading “brake malfunction” and a Tesla logo. She can be heard shouting: “Tesla brake malfunctioned!” for several minutes before being dragged away by security guards.
Shanghai police said today that the 32-year-old woman, surnamed Zhang, was put under a five-day detention order for disturbing public order. Another woman who was with her at the protest surnamed Li received a warning from the police.
According to state media outlet Xinhua there have been dozens of reported incidents involving Tesla cars such as malfunctioning brakes and batteries catching on fire while driving.
Zhang bought a Tesla Model 3 at the end of 2019 for 368,000 yuan ($US56,600), Henan TV reported.
The accident happened on February, 21, while the car was being driven on a highway by Zhang’s father.
She said while the car was approaching an intersection, her father, who had 30 years of driving experience, yelled “the brake doesn’t work”. The car collided with two cars stopped at a traffic light before crashing into a cement barrier, Zhang said.