Recently, significant progress has been made in the Tesla "brake failure case" and the Shanghai Auto Show roof incident. The "second person" in the incident has been sentenced to apologize and compensate Tesla, as well as compensate for economic losses and rights protection costs of 2000 yuan.
But on November 27th, according to China Newsweek, Tesla raised objections to the compensation amount.
It is understood that Tesla requested Ms. Li to compensate 5 million yuan in the first instance, but the amount of compensation awarded was only 2000 yuan. Tesla stated that the incident caused significant losses to it, with judicial evaluation agencies assessing Tesla's order and goodwill losses as high as billions of yuan.
The relevant person in charge of Tesla stated that in order to promote the identification of the accident vehicle and prove their innocence, Tesla bought the involved vehicle again and advanced the identification fee, which alone cost hundreds of thousands of yuan before and after.
Tesla disagrees with such a result and plans to continue appealing.
On April 19, 2021, the first day of the Shanghai Auto Show, two Tesla car owners, Ms. Li from Xi'an and Ms. Zhang from Henan, dressed in clothing with the words "brake failure", defended their rights at the Tesla booth. One of the car owners also stood on the roof of the car. Both car owners claimed that the accident occurred while driving their purchased Tesla vehicle due to "brake failure".
According to the Southern Metropolis Daily on November 22, in the recent case of Tesla suing the Shanghai Auto Show for infringement of the reputation rights of a female car owner in Xi'an, the court made a first instance judgment, determining that Ms. Li's reputation infringement responsibility in Xi'an was established, and she must publicly apologize to Tesla and compensate for economic losses and rights protection costs of 2000 yuan.
According to Red Star News, the court believes that in this case, Ms. Li's use of banners, shouting slogans, using insulting language, and publishing false statements in online media, which are prohibited by law, without sufficient evidence to prove, has clearly exceeded the reasonable boundaries of rights protection and caused serious negative impact on Tesla's corporate image, decreased social evaluation, and serious economic losses, It should be determined that the plaintiff's reputation rights have been damaged and they should bear the liability for infringement. Considering that the defendant's infringement behavior has indeed led to a significant decrease in the plaintiff's social evaluation, causing a negative impact on the plaintiff's business reputation, and to a certain extent affecting the plaintiff's business performance, causing corresponding economic losses to the plaintiff, and paying a large amount of rights protection fees, it is more appropriate for the defendant to compensate the plaintiff for economic losses and rights protection fees of 2000 yuan at the discretion of this court.
The final court ruled that Ms. Li's reputation infringement liability in Xi'an was established.
According to Red Star News, the first instance judgment was made as early as December 2021, with Ms. Li winning the case. Subsequently, Tesla filed an appeal and the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court ruled to remand the case for retrial. On November 9, 2023, the Weiyang District Court made another judgment, ruling that Ms. Li lost the lawsuit. Ms. Li stated that the reason why the verdict of the first instance in 2021 was not publicly announced and Weibo was deleted after the Shanghai Auto Show was due to pressure to choose not to speak up. Ms. Li stated that she respects the court's ruling and will appeal again regarding Tesla's victory in the first instance.
Previously, according to a report by Shanghai Securities News, insiders close to Tesla revealed that Tesla is likely to appeal further in the future.
According to Southern Metropolis Daily, on April 21, 2021, the reporter interviewed Tesla owner Ms. Li, who defended her rights at the Shanghai Auto Show and was later given an administrative warning. She claimed that on March 19, 2021, while driving left, she collided with another approaching motor vehicle. In the moment of crisis, Ms. Li found that her brakes could not be pressed, the ABS was not activated, and the airbags were not deployed. Later, she found that the driving recorder was empty.
In response, Tesla stated that Ms. Li did not create a dedicated folder for the dash cam and therefore could not activate the dash recording function. Regarding the issue of the airbag not being opened in this collision, Tesla stated that prior to the accident, the vehicle did not receive any warning of a malfunction in the airbag system. The vehicle did not reach the threshold for the deployment of seat side airbags and air curtains during a collision.
Ms. Zhang from Henan has also been sued by Tesla for infringement of her reputation and has filed a claim of 5 million yuan. On August 8th this year, the case was heard in the People's Court of Qingpu District, Shanghai. However, on that day, the Qingpu District People's Court decided to temporarily adjourn the court, and the date of the hearing will be notified separately.