On June 17, the Shanghai Higher People’s Court rejected the retrial application filed by Ms. Zhang and Mr. Feng in the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show “rooftop rights defense” case, bringing the defamation dispute to a definitive conclusion through the entire judicial process. The court determined that Ms. Zhang’s claim of “Tesla brake failure” had no factual basis, and her actions of climbing onto the roof of a display car and shouting publicly went beyond the boundaries of reasonable consumer supervision and criticism, constituting defamation. The court affirmed that the first-instance and second-instance judgments found facts clearly and applied the law correctly. Mr. Feng’s repeated disparaging remarks about Tesla on social media, which were found to have played an organizational and planning role, were also upheld by the higher court. Under the first-instance judgment, Ms. Zhang must issue a public apology and compensate Tesla for economic losses and reasonable litigation expenses totaling 172,000 yuan. Mr. Feng must issue a public apology and pay 250,000 yuan in compensation.
The case originated in February 2021 when Ms. Zhang’s father rear-ended another vehicle while driving a Tesla Model 3 in Anyang, Henan Province. The local traffic police ruled the driver was fully at fault, which Zhang’s side disputed, claiming brake failure. In April 2021, on the media day of the Shanghai Auto Show, Ms. Zhang climbed onto the roof of a Tesla display car wearing a T-shirt printed with the words “brake failure,” attracting widespread attention. In October 2021, Tesla filed a lawsuit with the Shanghai Qingpu District Court, seeking 5 million yuan in damages. In May 2023, the court rejected all of Zhang’s counterclaims against Tesla for defamation and invasion of privacy. In May 2024, the first-instance court found Ms. Zhang liable for defamation. In July 2025, the second-instance appeal upheld the original ruling. In December 2025, Ms. Zhang applied for a retrial, which was rejected by the higher court after six months of review.