Summary: One more strong opponent is not as good as one more golden and talented teammate.
Text/Liu Huiying Editor/Zhang Guangkai
Musk's private jet landed in Beijing today, marking his second visit to China after three years. After arriving in Beijing, Musk immediately synchronized his positioning on Weibo, and did not hesitate to praise China's aerospace industry: "China's space program is far ahead of what most people realize." ”
Counting this time, Musk has come to China 10 times, more than the vast majority of foreign car company executives. The benign cooperation with the Chinese government and the market is one of the most important reasons for Tesla's success today. However, this time in China, Musk needs to face not all enthusiasm.
Not long ago, Tesla was forced to recall by China because of the controversy over the kinetic energy recovery function. The "full autonomous driving" (FSD) promoted by Tesla also urgently needs support from China's policy level. Perhaps because of this, Musk just arrived in China this time, and quickly showed his sincerity in government and private channels.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with Musk in Beijing. Musk said that Chinese people are diligent and wise, and China's development achievements are a matter of course. The interests of the United States and China are intertwined, just as conjoined babies are inseparable from each other. He pointed out that Tesla opposes "decoupling and breaking the chain" and is willing to continue to expand its business in China and share China's development opportunities.
This afternoon, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a regular press conference that China has always welcomed business people from all over the world, including Mr. Musk, to visit China to better understand China and promote mutually beneficial cooperation.
Just when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed Musk's arrival, it was rumored on the Internet that Musk had arrived in Shanghai and ate his favorite xiaolongbao at the City God Temple. It is said that when Musk came to China three years ago, he especially loved to eat Xiaolongbao from the City God Temple.
For this trip, some foreign media said that Musk will visit Tesla's Shanghai factory and will meet with some key figures, and it is not clear when the meeting will be specific.
With China becoming the world's largest new energy vehicle market and Tesla's second largest market, Musk's interest in China has only increased.
In January 2020, during Musk's last visit to China, he brought an impromptu dance at the delivery ceremony of Tesla's domestic Model 3, narrowing the distance between Chinese consumers. Before coming to China this time, Tesla also gave China a big gift - the first energy storage super factory outside the United States is about to land in Shanghai Lingang.
On April 9, the signing ceremony of Tesla's energy storage super factory project was held in Shanghai, and the factory will be built in the Lingang New Area of Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Musk's love general, Zhu Xiaotong, who has just been promoted to senior vice president of Tesla's automotive business, attended and witnessed the signing ceremony.
The relevant person in charge of the Administrative Committee of Shanghai Lingang New Area said at the signing ceremony that this signing, Tesla not only improved the global production layout, but also boosted the confidence and strength of foreign-funded enterprises to invest in China. This is undoubtedly "sending charcoal in the snow" at a time when Sino-US frictions are constantly raging and the "decoupling theory" is raging.
It is reported that this super factory will be specially used to produce Tesla Megapack (ultra-large commercial energy storage battery), with an initial annual production of 10,000 commercial energy storage batteries and an energy storage scale of nearly 40GWh (gigawatt hours). Construction of the new plant will begin in the third quarter of 2023 and full-scale production will begin in the second quarter of 2024.
It is worth noting that Megapack is an ultra-large commercial energy storage battery that uses lithium iron phosphate solutions, mainly used in utilities and large industrial and commercial fields. In fact, this product is a To B (Business) and To G (Government) products, and from the current sales area distribution of Tesla Megapack, its main customers are distributed in developed countries such as the United States and Australia.
This also coincides with the third chapter of Tesla's grand blueprint released not long ago - Tesla will achieve the vision of 100% sustainable global energy by 2050, and the energy storage gigafactory project is one of the important measures to achieve this goal.
Frequently showing favor to China and increasing investment in China, what is Musk's demand in China?
Musk chose to increase Chinese investment, most likely still coveting Chinese manufacturing.
In fact, as early as 2019, the super factory built in Shanghai helped Tesla, whose performance hovered in the line of life and death, to "come back to life", thanks to the timely delivery of the Shanghai factory, Tesla's expected output value reached more than 130 billion yuan, with an annual output of more than 1 million vehicles. Musk was also impressed by the extremely high production efficiency of the Shanghai factory.
Now, Tesla is upgrading the production line at its Shanghai factory for the Model 3 facelift. As a model with a long life cycle, Model 3 sales are facing the challenge of Chinese manufacturers updating models, and the success of this facelift is crucial for Tesla.
Looking to the future, Tesla also hopes to launch a cheaper new model, which will inevitably require greater capacity expansion. So will Musk also have higher expectations in China's production capacity layout?
In addition, Musk's visit to China may be related to Tesla's FSD (full-self-driving) active pursuit of entering China.
Nowadays, the long-saved Tesla FSD has begun to move towards "mass production". In November last year, Tesla FSD was fully opened to the North American market. Earlier this month, Musk said that Tesla will provide all car owners in North America with a free one-month FSD full self-driving experience package, and the FSD after the trial period will be priced at $15,000 (about 104,000 yuan) or $199/99 per month (monthly subscription) in North America. This action shows that Tesla FSD may have reached a critical moment of mass popularization.
For FSD functionality to be popularized globally, the Chinese market must be won.
The Paper previously reported, "Chen Kele, deputy director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Promotion Department of the Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission, introduced that in the next stage, Shanghai will further deepen cooperation with Tesla, promote the layout of automatic driving, robots and other functional sectors in Shanghai, and jointly create a technology industry cluster with core technological advantages and facing the global market." ”
However, if Tesla FSD wants to truly enter China, it needs to overcome far more than the so-called qualifications, but also to make a convincing enough argument for its own reliability, safety and maturity.
To this end, on the one hand, Tesla needs to actively communicate with China at the policy level to cross the qualification threshold; On the other hand, Tesla also needs to stabilize its reputation, calm public opinion and give an explanation for the recent deep data leak.
For China's local intelligent driving manufacturers such as Xpeng NGP, Huawei NCA, and Jidu PPA, if Tesla SD functions enter China, it is tantamount to another giant catfish in this track. In the window period when intelligent driving has not yet been popularized and consumer awareness has yet to be established, the Chinese government's decision-making may become the key to determining the direction of Tesla's FSD market.
In fact, as the founder and CEO of companies such as Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity, Musk's interest in the Chinese market is expected. After all, one more strong opponent is not as good as one more golden and talented teammate.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.