By Laura He | CNN Business Elon Musk’s Tesla spent the last couple of years trying to win over China in a bid to conquer the world’s largest car market . Now the company risks upsetting Beijing’s powerful regulators.
The electric carmaker has been summoned by five Chinese regulatory agencies to answer questions about the quality of its Shanghai-made Model 3 cars, according to a statement released Monday by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). It said regulators were concerned about several problems with the cars, including “abnormal acceleration” and “battery fires.”
The meeting is troubling for Tesla. Thanks to Musk’s courting of officials, Tesla had managed to avoid cumbersome restraints imposed on global rivals trying to do business in China. The company opened one of its massive car factories in 2019 to great fanfare in Shanghai, and the country now accounts for a fifth of its revenue.
But for the past few weeks, Tesla has been heavily criticized within China for a series of problems involving its cars, culminating in Monday’s announcement.
