Musk suddenly showed up for a visit to China without warning, and it was against the backdrop of Tesla's lack of booths at the Beijing Auto Show. What signal does this send, and what are the plans behind the scenes?
Yesterday afternoon, Musk's plane suddenly landed in Beijing. This means that Musk suddenly opened a visit to China without revealing it beforehand. It is reported that Musk's surprise visit to China was at the invitation of Ren Hongbin, President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, so after Musk arrived in Beijing today, he directly had a discussion with Ren Hongbin, President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, to discuss the next step of cooperation.
And it happens to be interesting that the Beijing Auto Show is in full swing, and it is reported that there are more foreigners than Chinese visiting the exhibition. This shows that the competitiveness of Chinese car companies is really gradually increasing. But unexpectedly, Tesla did not have a booth at this auto show. At this time, Tesla founder Elon Musk suddenly appeared on a visit to China, what signal was released? What is the possible purpose behind it?
It seems to me that there may be several factors.
First, China needs Musk to push Europe and the United States to give up or reduce the attention to China's new energy vehicle excess capacity and set export thresholds. This should be the main appeal of China's invitation to Musk to visit China to discuss cooperation. Because everyone can see the identity of the person who invited Musk this time, it is clear that he is the president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Since it is an invitation issued by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, it must be to promote the export trade of new energy vehicles.
And as we all know, some European and American countries led by the United States have recently frantically criticized China's new energy vehicles, photovoltaic and other industries for overcapacity, and have threatened to resist China's imports of these industries and set thresholds. For example, Yellen and Blinken, who recently visited China, both expressed strong warnings in this regard.
As a representative industry of new quality productivity to be vigorously developed in the mainland, new energy vehicles represent the development direction of the mainland's manufacturing industry in the future, and are emerging industries that replace the real estate industry to become the pillar of the national economy. As a representative of the new energy vehicle industry in Europe and the United States, Musk's Tesla has in-depth cooperation with China, so it is very suitable for him to do the work in Europe and the United States. This is one of them.
Second, Musk needs China's environmental support in the field of autonomous driving. Recently, Musk announced that robo-taxis and unmanned driving will become the key areas of research and development for Tesla in the future, and many people, money and materials will be invested in support. If this cutting-edge technology can be successful, it will certainly provide core assistance for Tesla to stand at the highest point of the industrial chain and grasp the development direction of the future automotive industry. But the implementation of all this is inevitably inseparable from China's support.
China's road traffic system is perfect, and unmanned driving technology is also a key development direction, and even the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has repeatedly proposed unmanned pilots. And all this in China will be able to form a very perfect environment for the experimental landing of Musk's unmanned driving technology. If Musk's driverless technology can be supported and approved in China, it will certainly provide great help to Tesla's early transformation.
Therefore, Musk's sudden appearance in China to discuss cooperation with the president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade can be said to be the result of mutual demand.