Why Tesla CEO Elon Musk Made a Surprise Consult with to China

[CC may contain inaccuracies] You're in Beijing.You saw perhaps the plane that was carrying Elon Musk arriving or ourmembers of Bloomberg News did. But what do we know so far about thissurprise visit? Yeah, we are tracking the story.And Bloomberg News was tracking the plane across the Pacific, his Gulfstreamthat is at least registered to Tesla. We can't confirm 1,000% that Elon Muskwas actually on that particular plane. But we can see from CCTV that he wasthere in Beijing meeting with the premier, Li Qiang.Keep in mind, Li Qiang was the Shanghai Party boss at the time that Musk andTesla negotiated the the factory for.

Shanghai that opened in 2019.And essentially, you know, there is a long five year relationship, if notmore, between Musk and Li Qiang, and that is the most productive factory inthe world for Tesla. But keep in mind, Tesla is havingtroubles right now. It just coming off its first year overyear decline in quarterly revenue since 2020.It's also slipping down the table in the EV leadership in China.So there are troubles here. They're cutting headcount globally.They're also said to be axing new recruits, college graduates here inChina.

They're also looking to accelerate newmodels around the world. However, they are not at the BeijingAuto Show, which is ongoing right now. Li Qiang did go to the auto show.There's speculation, at least in Chinese media, that Elon Musk, before he jetsoff out of China, might make a visit today at the Beijing Auto Show.We cannot confirm that. We are getting a report, though, comingout, actually a statement from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturersin a statement yesterday afternoon coinciding with Musk's arrival, by theway. Coincidence?Perhaps. He arrived at 2 p.m.

We got the statement about the sametime, the data that basically Tesla has passed the data security test on how avehicle collects sensitive personal information and whether the vehicleallows a driver to easily stop its from collecting data.This is for the Model three and Model Y's from Tesla.But again, the overall pressure that Tesla is facing globally on its revenueis acute and it is in China. I asked Bill Russo, who is the founderof Automobility, He is a long term auto veteran in this market.He knows and he essentially said that Tesla is losing ground in this marketand it just doesn't have the new models.

And does not make is not, you know,present at the Beijing auto show at a time when Chinese EVs have made suchgrounds over the last four years or so. It does have new technologies that wehear they want to try and maybe push into this market full self-driving.Is this a sort of a service, I guess, that would be accepted by regulatorsthere? Well, that's an interesting question.The data force, you know, assisted driving is accepted in this market.Whether Tesla's full self-driving software and system is going to beaccepted is the other question. And that's probably why he is definitelyhere.

He wants to see that revenue streamincluded, of course, from the world's biggest auto market here in China.Tesla charges about 8,000 USD to buy the system outright.They charge a $99 subscription as an alternative option for buyers.So he wants to get that approval from Beijing regulators.But there's all kinds of, you know, sensitivities around the cameras thatare in the system data security, the safety.Keep in mind this FSD system, the full self-driving system.It doesn't make these Teslas fully autonomous.It needs driver assistance, but it's a.

Step upwards beyond the other systemthat Tesla has, and that is autopilot. Autopilot has had some problems and USregulators have launched an investigation into the safety, citing 20crashes allegedly involving that system since December, since a software upgradein since December. So, again, these are obviously concernsthat the Chinese regulators would have about the safety of any Tesla system.But also data security is absolutely at the crux of the differences betweenChina and the United States. Already, Chinese regulators andauthorities have essentially banned Teslas from going onto militarycompounds and other government.

Facilities.So there's a long road to hoe, obviously, for Tesla.He does have the good relationships. Elon Musk with Lee Chang, obviously.But again, it's a big struggle to get that kind of approval.So immediately. But again, they said all the rightthings. Li Qiang, according to CCTV, said Chinais always open to foreign companies. He added that Tesla is a successfulexample of China U.S. cooperation and that Musk also,according to CCTV, told Li that Tesla was willing to deepen cooperation withChina.

Keep in mind, you can kind of see ElonMusk priorities. He was supposed to be in India lastweek, supposed to be meeting with Narendra Modi, the prime minister there.He wants to get into India, no doubt. There's a lot of it, tax issues ofimport taxes and the like in the Indian market.He also wants StarLink in India. But clearly, China is Elon Musk'spriority. He flew in here sort of unannounced.Well, the Chinese knew he was coming. We didn't know he was coming.But he obviously sees China as a more pressing matter right now.

Sharing is caring!