With the release from the five-day detention of a female owner who complained of brake failure, Tesla says it has contacted her family and will seek to initiate its next mediation as soon as possible.
Tesla made the remarks in a Weibo post late Sunday night. The US electric car company's image in China continues to be tarnished as its dispute with the owner continues to drag on.
Tesla said it had contacted the owner's family at 11:02 a.m. on April 25 and had a phone call.
"We expressed our willingness and sincerity to communicate further. Ms. Zhang's family indicated that she would need to rest for two days and be in touch after that. We greatly appreciate the response from Ms. Zhang's family," Tesla said.
"We are actively communicating with regulators to initiate the next mediation as soon as possible under the guidance and supervision of the government and to facilitate third-party testing. We will do our best to cooperate in solving the problem," the company said.
On April 19, at the Tesla booth at the Shanghai auto show, the owner wore a T-shirt that could be translated as "Brake Failure" and stood on top of a car in protest, causing widespread concern.
She was then forcibly carried out by staff and detained for five days for disturbing public order. On Sunday, she was released from the five-day detention.
The owner, surnamed Zhang, from the northern Henan city of Anyang, went to the hotel where her husband, Mr. Li, was staying, who said he wanted his wife to get some rest, according to Daxiang News.
Previously, the woman's father was driving her car home when she was involved in a traffic accident, saying he was braking when the vehicle accelerated instead of slowing down, causing it to rear-end multiple cars in front of him.
The local traffic police determined that Zhang's father had caused the accident by driving the vehicle illegally and should be held fully responsible for the accident.
On March 9, the market regulators in Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province, invited Tesla and the woman owner to mediation, where the two parties disagreed and the mediation was unsuccessful. Zhang subsequently protested several times.
During her detention, on April 22, Tesla released to the media the driving data of the minute before the accident and made a written explanation. But the move was challenged by the owner's family, who claimed privacy was violated.
While Tesla released the Weibo post late yesterday night, the owner also said on Weibo that she apologized for her overly aggressive behavior but questioned Tesla's recent attitudes and practices.
She denied that Tesla had previously communicated actively with her, saying she had never expressed her intention not to accept third-party testing, just not the third-party testing agency they had appointed.
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