Tesla's domestic vehicles are not equipped with knee airbags or due to differences in vehicle standards at home and abroad

According to media reports, recently, some car owners uploaded videos to confirm whether the domestic version of Tesla is equipped with knee airbags, because the Tesla crash test videos and other information he obtained show that the overseas version of Tesla is equipped with knee airbags. So he removed the revised version under the main co-driver of the vehicle, but did not find a knee airbag, only a plastic cover.

To further confirm, the owner dialed the Tesla 400 customer service number. The other party said: Knee airbags do not affect the safety of the whole vehicle, in the time of car accident, the role of knee airbags on the safety of the vehicle is not high, so all domestic Teslas are not equipped with knee airbags.

Subsequently, Tesla customer service further responded that the domestic Tesla is indeed not equipped with knee airbags, and there are some differences in vehicle standards at home and abroad, like some configurations of domestic models, and overseas versions are not available. But the owner can be completely assured that the vehicle is through the C-NCAP new car crash test standards, crash test results, are able to meet the protective knees. Moreover, the C-NCAP crash test standard does not require knee airbags. If the new car is not crash-tested and does not meet the standards, Tesla will not be allowed to sell domestically.

According to public information, airbags are an important passive safety configuration in cars, usually installed in the front, side, knee and other positions of the driver's seat in the car. Among them, the knee airbag is usually configured under the dashboard, when encountering a collision accident, the airbag will automatically pop out, the purpose is to reduce the damage to the driver's leg, form a collision buffer area, but also help to alleviate the driver's chest and abdomen impact force.

Regulations in the United States, Japan, Europe and other places require vehicles to install airbags. In 1984, the U.S. federal government incorporated passive safety devices into regulations, requiring that by 1994 all cars be 100% equipped with airbags. Europe issued the ECE R94 regulation in 1996, making front-end airbags standard in cars. China's auto safety related standards were introduced late, and a national mandatory standard system for automobile collisions including frontal collisions, side collisions, and post-collision trinity has been established, and national standards have been formulated for the test requirements of airbag products, but the merger system is mandatory to require the installation of airbags on listed models.

Data show that in the current automotive market, most models are still mainly equipped with front airbags and side airbags for the main and passenger seats, and knee airbags are mainly configured in high-end models due to cost. Some people believe that the more airbags used in vehicles, the higher the safety protection effect on the personnel in the car, which is also the main reason for the controversy caused by the domestic version of Tesla's "reduction" of knee airbags.

In the crash test evaluation of the domestic version of Tesla Model 3 released by The China Insurance Research Institute in 2020, its occupant safety index and vehicle auxiliary safety index both received excellent (G) evaluations. In the detailed evaluation of the occupant safety index in the car, including four aspects: frontal 25% bias collision, side impact, roof strength, and seat/headrest, the Model 3 also achieved four all-in-one (G) results. It is worth mentioning that the part of the dummy injured in the frontal 25% bias collision, the legs and feet only received good (A) ratings.

However, a 2019 study released by the National Highway Safety Insurance Association (IIHS) showed that in some accidents, knee airbags are not effective in reducing the safety risks caused by traffic accidents.

Although the "reduction" of the knee airbag is still inconclusive, Tesla did have a series of problems and defects in terms of quality in the past. According to statistics, Tesla recalled a total of 544,000 cars in China in 2021, covering the four models on sale of the "S3XY", and the reasons for the recall include "the expiration of the vehicle's eMMC multimedia memory card life caused by the central display software function failure", "the vehicle's front trunk storage cannot be locked" and "the trunk wiring harness wears or causes the reversing image to not work properly".

Tesla is not the first time to be questioned by the "reduction", the chip door incident once pushed Tesla to the cusp of the storm. In 2020, a number of car owners reported that the autopilot hardware they purchased for the Tesla Model 3 was HW2.5, which was inconsistent with the HW3.0 chip officially promised. In March of the same year, the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology interviewed Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. about the illegal assembly of HW2.5 components on some vehicles of Tesla Model 3 models. Order it to rectify immediately in accordance with relevant regulations, earnestly perform the main responsibility of the enterprise, and ensure production consistency and product quality and safety.

The latest sales data shows that Tesla's cumulative global deliveries in 2021 were 936,200 units, an increase of 87.2% year-on-year. According to the statistics of the Association of Automobile Associations, from January to November 2021, Tesla Model Y retail sales in China were 129,000 units, ranking first in the list of new energy SUVs; Model 3 retail sales in China were 121,000 units, an increase of 6.3% year-on-year, second only to Hongguang MINI and BYD Qin, ranking third in the list of new energy cars.