TESLA chief executive officer Elon Musk made an unannounced trip to China on Sunday (Apr 28), just a week after postponing a visit to India to settle what he said were pressing issues at the automaker.
Musk met the head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Ren Hongbin, in Beijing, according to China Central Television. He’s expected to meet officials to discuss the rollout of Tesla’s driver-assistance system, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Musk’s latest China visit comes during a volatile time for Tesla, with slowing electric vehicle (EV) sales growth prompting a cost-saving drive and a reduction of more than 10 per cent of its global workforce. He was scheduled to be in India from Apr 21 to 22 on a much-anticipated visit which included a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but called it off because of “very heavy Tesla obligations”.
A Gulfstream registered to SpaceX landed in Beijing at about 2 pm local time. Reuters earlier reported Musk’s plans during the visit.
Tesla is working on getting the most advanced version of its Autopilot technology into new markets. Its vehicles have been banned from military compounds in China and some other government venues in the past, likely because of cybersecurity concerns over cameras installed in the vehicles to operate them.
“We plan on, with the approval of the regulators, releasing it as a supervised autonomy system in any market where we can get regulatory approval for that, which we think includes China,” Musk said on Tesla’s earnings call on Apr 23.
GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Advanced driver-assistance systems are becoming increasingly common in China’s EV market, where Tesla is losing market share. Many local players including Xpeng, Xiaomi and manufacturing partners of Huawei Technologies use sophisticated technology as a selling point for their vehicles, while industrywide price cuts by rivals add pressure to the US company to do the same.
Tesla, the world’s biggest seller of fully electric cars, is going through its biggest job cull, and losing key executives in the process. It has reduced prices of EVs in key markets such as the US and China. Investors overlooked dismal earnings as the company pledged to launch lower-cost EVs as soon as this year.
Tesla’s Shanghai factory, established in 2019, is the company’s most productive plant globally. China media reported that Tesla axed all Chinese graduate offers in its latest round of job cuts. BLOOMBERG
