A Chinese woman sued Tesla for faulty brakes and now owes the company $23,000 (4 photos)
Tesla has won a defamation lawsuit against Chinese citizen Zhang Yazhou, who was a passenger in a Tesla Model 3 in February 2021. According to the woman, it crashed due to faulty brakes, and her mother and father were forced to spend four days in the hospital. 
After the accident, Ms. Zhang publicly protested and sued the American manufacturer for defamation, but then Tesla filed a counterclaim against her, also for defamation. The Chinese court sided with the company, ordering Zhang to pay the equivalent of $23,000 in damages and issue a public apology.
The woman is now appealing the ruling, and Tesla has released telemetry data from the car that appears to show the brakes worked as expected. Over the past four years, Tesla has sued “at least” six electric car owners in China who complained about mechanical problems with their cars, the Associated Press reported.
The Associated Press reviewed lawsuits from a government database in China and found that of 81 civil cases in which Tesla owners sued the company over safety, product quality, or contractual disputes, the drivers won only nine. Tesla has also sued “at least six bloggers and two Chinese media outlets” who published critical stories about the company. 
