File photo:VCG

The lawsuit filed by a Chinese woman who became well-known for standing on top of a Tesla car to protest "brake failure" against the car brand and an executive of the company for defamation is expected to go on trial on Friday.

"Finally, the day has come for a public trial," the woman surnamed Zhang wrote on her Sina Weibo account on Monday. The case was put on record in May, after a lengthy judicial mediation process and three pre-trial meetings. "The day is finally here," she wrote.

Zhang also posted the electronic court summoning she got from the local court in Anyang, Central China's Henan Province, notifying her that the lawsuit would go to trial on Friday. She also posted a video via her Weibo account saying that she would post developments related to the trial in a timely manner.

The woman protested at the Tesla booth at the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition held in April, and shouted "Tesla's brakes fail." She wore a customized T-shirt with "brake failure" and Tesla's logo printed on it, triggering a heated discussion on Chinese social media.

Following the incident, Tao Lin, vice president at Tesla, said in media interviews that Zhang's protest was very "professional" and there might have been someone behind the whole incident to help her with the "protest." 

Zhang's husband said there was a team from Beijing assisting them to deal with the incident, Tesla (Shanghai) wrote on its Weibo account on April 28.

Zhang claimed that Tesla's Shanghai and Beijing branches posted information that made her look like someone who raised unreasonable requests and asked for a high amount of compensation.

"It's complicated," Zhang told the media, saying that her life has changed a lot after she protested in public in April as she has become a representative of Tesla's rights protection owners and has been under the spotlight. Zhang was in a dilemma after asking Tesla for complete driving data without any results, she told the media.

A few Chinese consumers have complained about Tesla's quality of auto parts. Due to unqualified steering knuckles, Tesla Shanghai has begun to recall 21,599 domestically made Model Y electric cars with production dates between February 4, 2021 and October 30, 2021, according to China's top market regulator in early December. 

Global Times