news

There has been new progress in the three-year-long Tesla "brake gate" incident.

Recently, the second-instance judgment of the defamation case between Tesla and Xi'an Li Mou was made. The amount of compensation that Li Mou should pay to Tesla was increased from the first-instance judgment to2000 yuan adjusted to 70000 yuan。

At the same time, the judicial appraisal agency commissioned by the court appraised the vehicle involved in the case, and the appraisal opinion was:The current technical condition of Tesla's vehicle braking system is normal and effective without any faults. There is no situation where the brake pedal cannot be pressed and the braking performance is reduced., in line with relevant technical standards.

Tesla says the incident caused losses of over 100 million yuan

Li from Xi'an was involved in a traffic accident while driving a Tesla in March 2021. On April 19, 2021, Li from Xi'an and Zhang from Henan appeared at the Tesla booth at the Shanghai Auto Show wearing clothing with the words "brake failure". On the same day, Zhang from Henan was administratively detained by the Qingpu Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau for disturbing public order, and Li from Xi'an was given an administrative warning.

In November 2023, Tesla sued a female car owner from Xi'an for defamation in the "Shanghai Auto Show Incident". The court made a first-instance judgment, determining that Xi'an Li was liable for defamation and was required to publicly apologize to Tesla and compensate for the losses, and bear the vehicle appraisal fees.

During the trial of the case, the court commissioned a judicial appraisal agency to appraise the vehicle. The appraisal opinion was: the current technical condition of the Tesla Model 3's braking system is normal and effective with no faults, and there is no situation where the brake pedal cannot be pressed and the braking efficiency is reduced. It complies with the relevant technical standards of the "Technical Conditions for Motor Vehicle Operation Safety" and "Motor Vehicle Safety Technical Inspection Items and Methods".

Source of the first instance judgment: China Business News

The court judgment shows that the defendant Li must delete all remarks and comments published on Sina Weibo that damage the reputation of the plaintiff Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. within ten days from the date of effectiveness of this judgment, and apologize to the plaintiff Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. in writing on Sina Weibo (the content is subject to the review of the People's Court), and the apology must be made public for no less than fifteen consecutive days; the defendant Li must compensate the plaintiff Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. for economic losses and rights protection costs of 2,000 yuan.

The case acceptance fee is RMB 25,500 (already paid in advance by the plaintiff), of which RMB 25,390 shall be borne by the plaintiff and RMB 110 shall be borne by the defendant; the appraisal fee is RMB 20,000 (already paid in advance by the plaintiff), which shall be borne by the defendant and shall be paid to the plaintiff together with the above-mentioned amount by the defendant.

It is understood that Tesla required Li to pay 5 million yuan in compensation in the first instance, but the amount of compensation awarded was only 2,000 yuan. According to reports, on November 27, 2023, Tesla said that the incident had caused it huge losses.According to the judicial evaluation agency, Tesla's order and goodwill losses amounted to hundreds of millions of yuan.At the time, Tesla said it would appeal.

Henan Zhang was sentenced to apologize and pay 170,000 yuan in compensation in the first instance

The case involving Zhang, a female car owner from Henan who climbed onto the roof of a Tesla at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, was also sentenced at the first instance on May 30 this year.

On May 30, the first-instance judgment of the Shanghai Qingpu District People's Court was pronounced in the case of Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and the female car owner Zhang Mou's reputation rights dispute. According to the judgment, the female car owner publicly issued an apology statement and compensated Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. for various losses totaling 172,000 yuan.

The court held that the female car owner Zhang, who rashly carried out the case without any objective evidence to prove that the brakes of the vehicle in question were out of order, constituted defamation. At the same time, knowing that there was no solid evidence, she did not pay attention to using objective and pertinent words when making public statements, and chose the media day of the Shanghai Auto Show to go to the Tesla booth area, made and wore a T-shirt with the words "brake failure" printed on it in advance, climbed onto the roof of the exhibition car and shouted "Tesla brake failure", using the on-site media to quickly and widely spread the unverified information. Her words and deeds clearly had the subjective intention and fault to discredit the reputation of Tesla Shanghai.

Image source: Shanghai Securities News

According to media reports, Tesla China said that according to the assessment report issued by the judicial assessment agency, the "Shanghai Auto Show Incident" caused Tesla to suffer more than 170 million yuan in direct order losses and tens of millions of yuan in goodwill losses. After this incident, there were several accidents in which car owners claimed that "brake failure" occurred. In the end, the assessment results made by professional appraisal agencies showed that the cause of the accident had nothing to do with the Tesla vehicle itself.

In addition, Feng, a media person who organized and planned the Tesla Shanghai Auto Show incident, was ordered to apologize and pay compensation to Tesla. The court found that Feng, a media person, had violated the law by disrupting public order in the "Shanghai Auto Show Incident" on April 19, 2021, and played a role in organizing and planning the incident.

At the same time, because Feng had been attacking Tesla and defaming Tesla's reputation on Weibo for a long time, the court ordered him to apologize to Tesla on his Weibo account and the Legal Daily, and compensate for the losses of 250,000 yuan.

Source: Xinmin Evening News, China Business News, Shanghai Securities News, China Newsweek, National Business Daily, etc.