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Sued Tesla Customer in China Says Tesla Model Y Lost Rear Wheel at High Speed

Our frequent readers already know Han Chao. Once a Tesla customer, he sued it for fraud, won the lawsuit, and was sued by Tesla for defamation. If the EV maker wanted to intimidate him, it backfired: Han Chao became famous in China and is sharing new problems with Tesla. The latest one was a Model Y that lost its rear right wheel while traveling at 110 kph (68.4 mph).
Tesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in China 12 photos
Photo: Han Chao/Weibo
Tesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in ChinaTesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in China
Chao shared the pictures of the accident and screenshots of its description on Weibo, China’s equivalent to Facebook. The Model Y owner identifies solely as “I love rainy day today,” according to Google Translate. Unfortunately, the former Tesla customer did not reveal the source of the conversation.

According to “I love rainy day today,” he was driving at 110 kph on the highway when his car suddenly lost the rear right wheel. That made him lose control of his EV and collide with a truck that was nearby. The truck would have pushed his car for 300 meters (328.1 yards). It is not clear where his car was, where the truck was, and how the collision happened.

Tesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in China
Photo: Han Chao/Weibo
The Model Y owner said his car had no video of the crash. That was enough for Chinese Tesla owners to question him tirelessly about the evidence. He impatiently said he had almost died and that there was no space to record anything. Apart from that, he also claimed that he would have to have manually ordered the recording if it was possible. His wife was with him when the crash happened.

Looking at the pictures he shared, the rear wheel got stuck into a guardrail on the right that seems to have been hit precisely at that point. That raises some doubts. If the Model Y lost its rear wheel, why wasn’t it a little behind the wrecked guardrails instead of stuck in it? That indicates that it was probably still attached to the body somehow.

Tesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in China
Photo: Han Chao/Weibo
Checking the truck, we see it presents damages on the right and the left side as if it had hit the Model Y at least twice. One hypothesis is that the Model Y was on the left lane. When the rear right wheel and its suspension fell to the ground, the body pivoted and invaded the right lane, where the truck was. After this first crash, the Model Y was thrown into the guardrail, where the truck struck it a second time, now with the right side of its bumper.

The pictures show that Tesla has green paint on the right flank – from hitting the guardrail – and a wrecked rear end that seems to have been hit harder on the right side. Only the police investigation will be able to confirm precisely what happened there.

Tesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in China
Photo: Han Chao/Weibo
In China, Tesla has a working PR department, and it issued an official response to Chao’s post. The company stated that the available information is that the Model Y crashed with the truck in the right lane. The wheel would have separated from the body due to the wreck. Tesla also dismissed that the wheel fell off the car and said it had nothing to do with the recent knuckle recall.

It is impossible for the company to know that without proper investigation of the crash. The way Tesla is dealing with it, it may make it look like it is trying to avoid even discussing this possibility. There’s a good reason for that: Keith Leech, also known as Keef Wivaneff, accuses Tesla of “Whompy Wheels” for years already.

Tesla Model Y allegedly loses its rear right wheel and crashes in China
Photo: Han Chao/Weibo
Leech is famous in Australia for debunking green scams after he tried to live off-grid and bought a SunCube. Suspicious of Tesla, he started to investigate the company and found suspension issues on multiple crashed Tesla vehicles on auction websites. According to him, “many of these Teslas had damaged suspensions that did not appear to be the result of crash damage but were simply fractures of the suspension components.”

If the wheel of this Chinese Model Y really fell off to provoke the whole crash, it could be the most recent example of what Leech has been stating all these years. Again, the only ones able to respond to this are the Chinese authorities in charge of the investigation. At this point, it is wise to take both what the driver affirms and what Tesla says with a grain of salt.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
Gustavo Henrique Ruffo profile photo

Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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