The arrogant Tesla gave in

Production | Tiger Smell Automotive Group

Author | Wang Xiaoyu

Head Picture | Visual China

In the past two years, Tesla's arrogance has been visible to the naked eye.

In May 2021, a sentence from Tesla Global Vice President Tao Lin spread throughout Chinese social media. Her original words are as follows:In the use of vehicles, it may be necessary to strengthen consumer education

At that time, Tao Lin believed, "We need to cooperate with driving schools and transportation departments to let everyone understand the usage methods of the new car, and then avoid misoperation or other problems caused by lack of understanding of functions during the use process." Later, she also mentioned, "Smart cars will definitely be safer than traditional cars before

The reason why Tao Lin expressed the view of "strengthening consumer education" is precisely because at the 2021 Shanghai International Auto Show, a woman in white stood on the roof of Tesla to defend her rights and loudly shouted "Tesla's brakes are malfunctioning". And the "misoperation" mentioned by Tao Lin directly refers to the "brake failure" mentioned by the rights activist woman; The "function" mentioned by Tao Lin directly refers to the "single pedal mode" that netizens find most suspicious.

After two years, the arrogant Tesla finally gave in.

On May 12th, after the State Administration for Market Regulation launched a defect investigation, Tesla launched the largest recall in the history of the Chinese market, involving over 1.1 million Tesla models, with the source of the recall directly pointing to the single pedal mode.

A recall notice basically addresses the safety hazards of Tesla's mandatory single pedal mode.

How did the arrogant Tesla give in?

Tesla's recall actions in China have been frequent, but this recall alone has received much attention. There are three reasons:

One reason is the large number of recalls, with almost all Tesla's cars sold in China recalled in the past four years.

According to public information from the State Administration for Market Regulation, starting from May 29 this year, Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. recalled a total of 1.1046 million imported ModelS, ModelX, Model3, and domestically produced Model3 and ModelY cars produced from January 12, 2019 to April 24, 2023.

As a reference, from 2019 to April 2023, Tesla's cumulative sales in the Chinese market were approximately 1.1247 million vehicles. So, the vehicles recalled this time almost cover all models sold by Tesla in China in the past four years. Of course, the recall is still completed through remote vehicle upgrade (OTA) technology. Currently, many Tesla car owners have received recall notifications on the app.

The second reason is that the recall issue is one of the biggest suspects in many "brake failure" incidents.

According to public information, the vehicles within the scope of this recall are not allowed to choose energy recovery braking strategies for drivers; At the same time, insufficient reminders may not be provided for drivers who have deeply pressed the accelerator pedal for a long time.The combination of the above factors may increase the probability of accidentally stepping on the accelerator pedal for a long time, which may increase the risk of collision and pose a safety hazard.

Translation:,Mandatory single pedal mode poses a safety hazard.

To address this hidden danger, Tesla plans to remotely upgrade through OTA and promote newly developed features for vehicles within the recall range, in order to reduce the risk of collisions caused by excessive speed due to prolonged and deep stepping on the accelerator pedal. The functions include: (1) providing options to allow the driver to choose the energy recovery braking intensity on vehicles without the option of energy recovery braking intensity; (2) Adjust the factory default state of the vehicle's energy recovery braking strategy; (3) Send a reminder when the driver deeply presses the accelerator pedal for a long time.

This means that after the OTA recall, Tesla no longer forces Chinese users to adapt to the "single pedal mode". At the same time, a feature has been added to address the previously rumored 'stepping on the wrong pedal' incident - if the driver deeply presses the accelerator pedal for a long time, there will be a reminder.

The biggest headache now may be the Auto Parts City, where the "brake recorder" is no longer easy to sell.

The third reason is the continuous negative news, which makes Tesla's sales in China worrying.

From the sales chart released by the China Federation of Automobile Manufacturers, it can be seen that Tesla's main models in China, the Model 3 and Model Y, are being crushed by BYD Qin and BYD Song, and the gap is constantly widening. From the total retail ranking of manufacturers from January to April, BYD ranked first with 703000 vehicles, while Tesla China ranked second with only 177000 vehicles, a difference of nearly four times.

Price war is currently Tesla's only market response strategy: in January of this year, Tesla provoked a wave of price cuts; In May, Tesla sparked another wave of price increases. The repeated price adjustments not only did not lead to a surge in orders, but also greatly damaged the brand image.

After the arrogance disappeared, Tesla had to start learning to reflect and admit mistakes.

Brake failure, disappear from here?

The slogan 'Tesla brake failure' was shouted by the white clad woman standing on the roof of Tesla at the 2021 Shanghai International Auto Show. In February of that year, the party involved in the collision occurred in Anyang, Henan Province due to speeding violations. The victim believed that the cause of the collision was Tesla's brake failure and the vehicle lost control. But so far, the lawsuit between this car owner and Tesla has not been finalized.

Since then, incidents of "brake failure" have emerged one after another. Multiple Tesla collisions and human collisions have occurred in Beijing, Jiangsu, Chongqing, Hunan and other places. Last year, an accident involving Tesla occurred in Chaozhou, Guangdong, which resulted in two deaths and three injuries. In the long run, the inexplicable loss of control of vehicles is firmly tied to "brake failure".

It was not until this large-scale recall that there was a relatively clear answer to the so-called "brake failure"Forced single pedal mode, back pot.

For Tesla's single pedal mode, there are currently many people who are not familiar with Tesla or pure electric vehicles, and there may be two misconceptions:One is that Tesla doesn't have a brake pedal;Secondly, thinking that single pedal mode is a curse.

Firstly, Tesla's single pedal mode does integrate acceleration and deceleration functions onto the accelerator pedal.But it doesn't mean that Tesla only has one accelerator pedal and no brake pedal.

Tesla's Single Pedal Mode

On traditional fuel powered vehicles, stepping on the accelerator is acceleration, and stepping on the brake is braking. Pure electric vehicles have added kinetic energy recovery. When the accelerator pedal is released, the vehicle automatically slows down and recovers energy, achieving the effect of increasing range and reducing brake pad wear.

The Nissan Leaf was the first to introduce the single pedal mode,After fully releasing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle can slowly stop The single pedal mode is equipped on many pure electric vehicle models, such as the NIO and Xiaopeng in China, which also have similar functions.

Nissan's single pedal mode

Tesla Customer Support Weibo also posted an article stating that by recovering some of the energy during the vehicle's deceleration process, each energy is fully utilized to increase the range. Many Tesla sales also view the single pedal mode as a "true fragrance" feature.

In fact, the biggest problem is not in single pedal mode, but in forcing changes in user habits.

After the delivery of the first batch of domestically produced Tesla ModelY in 2021, Tesla cancelled the "low" option in the "kinetic energy recovery" adjustment option. New cars are uniformly set according to the "standard" kinetic energy recovery, and cannot be adjusted or cancelled. Tesla car owners can only passively accept 'single pedal mode'.

Tesla's Single Pedal Mode

It was not until the State Administration for Market Regulation launched an investigation that Tesla temporarily put down its arrogance and handed over the choice to consumers.

But will the so-called "brake failure" really disappear due to the cancellation of the forced single pedal mode?We cannot jump to conclusions yet. It should be noted that Tesla's design that completely changes user habits in its products can go beyond single pedal mode. Before the Tesla Model 3, there were absolutely no cars that needed to adjust the wipers on the central control screen or the angle of the exterior rearview mirrors on the steering wheel.

Even on the new ModelS, Tesla has eliminated the mechanical shift mechanism and performed touch shifting on the screen. Even the steering wheel, ModelS uses a half width steering wheel. These disruptive designs, like the single pedal mode, are promoted as selling points. It is difficult to say what crazy actions users will take in actual usage scenarios under the excessive rendering of sales personnel.

This recall is one of Tesla's few yielding behaviors in China. But whether to yield to consumers or to the market may not be the case at present. Because in the recall announcement, it was also mentioned that the recall activity was carried out under the defect investigation initiated by the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Obviously, only a stronger hand can make Tesla yield.