Elon Musk has gone to China for the first time in three years. During his stay in China, Musk will visit Tesla’s Shanghai factory and discuss electric vehicle development.
Electric vehicle-maker Tesla’s boss Elon Musk has gone to China for the first time in over three years since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
The Tesla chief executive landed in Beijing on Tuesday and will tour Tesla’s massive Shanghai factory. Musk visited China’s foreign minister Qin Gang within hours of arrival. Despite US-China tensions, Mr. Musk has not commented on the trip.
As he departed a Beijing hotel on Wednesday, he refused to discuss his trip intentions with media.
Mr. Musk addressed electric car development with China’s industry minister Jin Zhuanglong on Wednesday. On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry said Mr. Musk was eager to develop Tesla’s operations in the nation, Tesla’s second-largest market after the US.
The government said Mr. Musk called the US and Chinese economies “conjoined twins” during the meeting. Musk is the latest high-profile US executive to visit China. Tim Cook visited China in March, and Jamie Dimon is in China this week.
Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said Tesla is in a tough spot as Washington-Beijing relations grow.
“Playing nice in the sandbox in Beijing is something Wall Street is laser focused on, to make sure there are no disruptions to Tesla’s expansion within China for the coming years,” Mr. Ives said.
Tesla’s first overseas production unit, the Shanghai gigafactory, began construction in January 2019. Later that year, it delivered its first Chinese-made automobiles.
Manufacturers struggled due to nationwide Covid lockdowns, especially in Shanghai, a financial, industrial, and shipping centre. Last year, Mr. Musk called the Shanghai coronavirus shutdown “very, very difficult” for Tesla, which suspended most gigafactory output for weeks.
Mr. Musk said the facility manufactured its millionth car in August and restarted operations. This was 30% of Tesla’s global production. According to JATO, China is Tesla’s Model Y’s biggest market.
JATO statistics reveals that China sold 94,000 Model Ys in the first three months of this year, surpassing the US and Europe. Ford, General Motors, BYD, and Nio have all entered the electric vehicle industry in recent years, challenging Tesla’s lead.
Mr. Musk, who purchased Twitter last year for $44bn (£35.5bn), has been under pressure to find a new CEO and focus on Tesla and SpaceX. He appointed Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s former advertising boss, as the platform’s CEO last month.
Ms. Yaccarino will have to manage a loss-making company under heavy criticism for its handling of disinformation and hate speech. Fidelity Investments, which financed Mr. Musk’s buyout of Twitter, says it’s worth only a third of what he spent.
