Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a visit that surprised the electric vehicle space. The sudden visit was about the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and overseas data transfer, Reuters reports, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.
CEO Musk was originally set to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India about potential investments in the local industry. However, he postponed the visit due to “heavy Tesla obligations.”
CEO Musk meets with Beijing officials
Instead of going to Shanghai, where Tesla’s production hub is, CEO Elon Musk landed in Beijing to meet with government officials.
Local reports suggest that the Tesla boss’ surprise visit to the world’s largest auto market was in response to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade’s (CCPIT) invitation.
Popular Tesla watcher @Tslachan indicated on X that CEO Musk met with CCPIT President Ren Hongbin “to discuss the next steps of cooperation.”
The Tesla Chief, along with Automotive SVP Tom Zhu and VP Grace Tao, also met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. He expressed his happiness to the media about the progressive electric vehicle uptake, even projecting that “all cars will be electric in China’s future.”
CEO Musk shared on X that he had known the Chinese official since the early Gigafactory Shanghai days.
Tesla eyes FSD launch in China
The Tesla boss has yet to disclose the actual reason behind his sudden visit to China. However, industry watchers and Tesla fans expect that the agenda might be about the imminent rollout of the FSD.
CEO Elon Musk’s arrival in Beijing apparently occurred following recent news about Tesla and other automakers’ qualifications on all data processing requirements in the country.
CEO Musk also announced this month that the American automaker may finally launch FSD in China “very soon,” in response to a query on X.
Advantages
The FSD rollout in China is crucial for Tesla, given that the country is currently the world’s leading electric vehicle market. Offering an ADAS like the FSD (Supervised) would substantially help Tesla to overthrow its local competitors.
Moreover, Tesla China already boasts a whopping 1.7 million+ EV owners in the past decade. This enormous fleet could offer the company a huge amount of real-world training data for the FSD development push.
CEO Elon Musk’s visit also ensued amid the ongoing Beijing Auto Show. However, it remains unclear if the Tesla boss will also drop by
the event to see the latest advancement of his company’s rivals.
