Musk Makes Surprise China Visit, a Week After Nixing India
(Bloomberg) — Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk made an unannounced trip to China on Sunday, a week after postponing a visit to India to handle 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 EV sales prompting a cost-cutting drive and the reduction of more than 10% of its global workforce. He was scheduled to be in India on April 21 and 22 for a much-anticipated visit that was going to include 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 p.m. local time. Reuters earlier reported Musk’s plans during the visit.
Musk Makes Surprise China Visit, a Week After Nixing India
Tesla is working on getting the system it calls Full Self-Driving, or FSD, approved for new markets. Its vehicles have been banned from China’s military compounds and some other government venues in the past over cameras used for its driver-assistance systems, which aren’t capable autonomous driving.
“We plan on, with the approval of the regulators, releasing it as a supervised autonomy system in any market that — where we can get regulatory approval for that, which we think includes China,” Musk said of FSD during Tesla’s April 23 earnings call.
Advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS, are becoming increasingly common in China’s EV market, where Tesla is losing share. Many local players including Xpeng Inc., Xiaomi Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. use sophisticated technology as a selling point for their vehicles, while industrywide price cuts by rivals add pressure for the US company to do the same.
Read More on Tesla:
Tesla Soars as Musk’s Cheaper EVs Calm Fears Over Strategy |
Tesla Spends Weekend Cutting Prices of Cars and FSD Software |
Musk Postpones India Visit, Citing Heavy Tesla Obligations |
Tesla Senior Executives Leave in Midst of Global Job Cuts |
Tesla, the world’s biggest seller of fully electric cars, has repeatedly reduced prices in key markets including the US and China. Investors overlooked dismal earnings last week as the company pledged to launch lower-cost EVs as soon as late 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.
–With assistance from Dana Hull and John Liu.
(Updates with Musk meeting in second paragraph.)
Most Read from Bloomberg
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.