The reminders never end. The American electric car giant Tesla “will recall” nearly 128,000 vehicles in China, due to a failure which can lead to collisions, announced the Chinese regulator, after several controversies targeting the brand. At last year’s Shanghai auto show, a customer angry over allegedly faulty brakes on her Tesla made headlines in China, while in France a Tesla electric taxi was blamed after a fatal crash.
The cars affected by the recall in China have a “small manufacturing defect” in a component at the level of the inverter, which regulates the current supplying the battery and the electric motor, said the market regulator (SAMR) .
The news obviously falls badly for the company of Elon Musk, while the latter inaugurated with great fanfare this Thursday a new factory in Austin, Texas. Called “Giga Texas”, the plant covers an area equivalent to a hundred football fields. Operational since the end of 2021, it is Tesla’s fifth “mega-factory”, after those in Nevada, New York, Shanghai and Berlin.
many incidents
“In extreme cases, this increases the risk of an accident and can constitute a danger”, specifies the regulator in a press release published on Thursday. The recall concerns Model 3s produced between 2019 and 2022. The measure targets some 128,000 vehicles, including 93,578 made in China in the gigantic Tesla factory in Shanghai.
Tesla has faced numerous complaints on social media in China in recent months for alleged quality and service issues. And multiplies the return procedures. The day after a similar recall in the United States, the electric car giant recalled in China nearly 200,000 vehicles “potentially” defective in the trunks, on December 31, 2021.
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In April 2021, a disgruntled customer’s stunt at the Shanghai Auto Show sparked a wave of criticism against the brand. Perched on the roof of a Tesla, she claimed to have almost died due to a failure of the braking system. The images had gone viral.
In December, Tesla had already recalled nearly 200,000 vehicles in China for a defect in the trunks. China is the most important market for the brand. Elon Musk’s company built a gigantic factory there in Shanghai in 2019 and a quarter of its total production is sold in the country.