Tesla Court Case Against Shanghai Protester Gets Underway

A woman stands on a Tesla 3 at the Shanghai Auto Show in 2021.

Photographer: VCG/Visual China Group/Getty Images

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A Chinese court started initial hearings in a Tesla Inc. lawsuit against a protester who climbed on a Model 3 car at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show and shouted that a brake failure had almost killed her family.

The incident fueled online criticism of Tesla in China, the world’s biggest electric-vehicle market and home to one of the company’s main production bases. Tesla denied the claim and filed a case against the protester, Zhang Yazhou, seeking 5 million yuan ($700,000) in damages.