Recently, the Beijing Auto Show is in full swing, but Tesla, as the head seller of new energy vehicles, has not appeared. Just when everyone was confused, Musk's experts suddenly arrived in Beijing and gave the outside world a big surprise. But this time Musk is not here to exhibit, but has more important things to do.
After arriving in Beijing, Musk held talks with senior Chinese officials. During the visit, the Chinese side mainly emphasized two aspects.
First of all, the Chinese side did not hesitate to praise Tesla's development in China as a model of Sino-US economic and trade cooperation. The meaning of this sentence is that Tesla represents the highest level of economic and trade cooperation between China and the United States, and other American companies should learn from Tesla.
Second, the Chinese side also stressed that mutual benefit and win-win results are in line with the common aspirations of China and the United States, so China will continue to open its doors to U.S. companies and provide a good business environment for foreign-funded enterprises, so that enterprises from all over the world can invest in China with peace of mind.
It is not difficult to see that although China's statement is with Musk, it is actually a shout-out to all American companies to dispel their potential concerns.
In this regard, Musk also gave positive feedback and promised to continue to cultivate the Chinese market and achieve more win-win results.
[Musk arrives in China]
It is worth mentioning that Musk's original arrangement was to visit India and meet with Indian Prime Minister Modi. Modi has also been looking forward to this day for a long time, hoping that Musk's arrival will convey to the people India's confidence in attracting foreign investment and make them feel at ease about the economy. Before this, Musk was also revealed to be going to India to set up a factory to change the trend of declining profits.
But in the end, Musk postponed his visit to India and went to China instead, citing busy business. It is clear that for Musk, the Chinese market is more important. And Musk's move also made the Indian media break their defenses, believing that India may not be able to wait for Tesla's investment. Because Truss's largest market is in China, Musk has just announced major layoffs around the world, and it is almost impossible to abandon the Chinese market and switch to India.
And the reason why Musk risked offending India and wanted to visit China is, of course, to discuss important matters in detail. According to people familiar with the matter, Musk hopes to launch fully self-driving (FSD) software in China and seeks approval. Previously, Musk also mentioned this matter on his personal social platform, saying that he would soon provide FSD to Chinese customers.
【Tesla Shanghai Factory】
In addition, Musk also made a reluctant request to China, hoping to transfer the driving information collected from China to foreign countries for training self-driving technology, because China's road conditions are very complex, which will help Tesla train self-driving algorithms to better serve Chinese customers. Previously, according to the requirements of Chinese regulators, all data collected by Tesla could not be transferred abroad.
As a result, although Tesla launched the FSD feature four years ago, Chinese customers did not enjoy it. As for the reason, on the one hand, of course, it is for the sake of national security, and on the other hand, because Tesla FSD has reported many traffic accidents since its launch. But now, in the face of the rise of China's domestic new energy vehicles, Tesla intends to enhance its competitiveness by promoting FSD, after all, this is Tesla's "unique job".
In addition, from the data point of view, Tesla's first-quarter financial report showed that its revenue decreased by 9% year-on-year. It was the company's largest year-over-year decline since 2012. Moreover, Tesla's stock price has fallen by more than 40% since the beginning of this year, forcing Tesla to show its ability to keep its market share in China.
[American people support TikTok]
But given that U.S. regulators are now trying to "take possession" of TikTok on the grounds of data security, Musk's request to transfer data to the U.S. may not be acceptable to China. However, in order to show its sincerity in cooperating with American companies, the Chinese side has also prepared a big gift.
Shortly after Musk arrived in China, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the National Computer Network Emergency Technology Processing and Coordination Center issued the "Notice on the Testing of 4 Safety Requirements for Automotive Data Processing (First Batch)", in which all the models produced by Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory meet the compliance requirements, and it is also the only foreign-funded car company that meets the compliance requirements, which paves the way for Tess to enter China's state units, central enterprises and state-owned enterprises.
For Tesla, this is not only a huge breakthrough in China, but also a major demonstration for the whole world to solve data security. In fact, the concerns about foreign companies collecting local data are the same in both China and Western countries. But Tesla's case proves that China's concerns about data security will not be an excuse to silence foreign companies. As long as foreign investors abide by Chinese laws and regulations, they can enjoy the same treatment as local Chinese enterprises.
In this way, Tesla has gotten rid of the previous controversy about "spy cars", and the customer base will be further expanded in the future, which will soon be reflected in sales. In general, Musk's visit to China this time can be said to be worthwhile. Compared with the unfair treatment suffered by TikTok in the United States, Tesla has received a greater degree of respect and trust in China, which will be recognized by the global industrial capital, and I believe everyone has a clear idea when deciding where to invest in the future.