Tesla dealt ‘black eye’ in recall of cars sold

The State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement that the action would involve some 211, 256 locally produced Model 3 vehicles and 35, 665 imported ones, as well as 38, 599 China-made Model Ys.

BEIJING: Tesla Inc will make a software fix to more than 285,000 cars in China, or most of the vehicles it delivered there in recent years, to address a safety issue identified by the country’s regulator.

In many cases the recall is expected to be done remotely with an online update to the cars’ active cruise control feature. Tesla will upgrade the software for free.

“This is a black eye for Tesla in a key China region which will be a headwind in the near term to overcome, ” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “It’s a lingering issue but clearly China put its foot down and Tesla needs to do a wide-scale recall.”

The State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement that the action would involve some 211, 256 locally produced Model 3 vehicles and 35, 665 imported ones, as well as 38, 599 China-made Model Ys.

The cars’ autopilot systems can be activated automatically, potentially leading to crashes from sudden acceleration, the Chinese agency said.

“We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this recall to all car owners, ” Tesla said in a notice through its official customer support account on Chinese social media platform Weibo. “Tesla will continue to improve safety in strict accordance with national requirements.”

Tesla has faced various setbacks in China over recent months. A protest at the Shanghai auto show in mid-April went viral, while there was concern a number of crashes would sour public opinion toward billionaire Elon Musk’s California-based company. — Bloomberg