Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a surprise visit to Beijing, China, where he discussed the rollout of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and the transfer of data overseas with Chinese Premier Li Qiang. The meeting took place amid Chinese state media’s recognition of Tesla’s success in China as a positive example of U.S.-China economic and trade cooperation.
Musk expressed his honor in meeting Premier Li on social media, emphasizing their longstanding acquaintance since the early days in Shanghai. Tesla’s entry into the Chinese market began with the establishment of a manufacturing plant in Shanghai in 2018, marking its first venture outside of the United States.
Despite strong customer demand, Tesla has not yet made its FSD software available in China, its second-largest market globally. However, Musk recently hinted at possibly making FSD accessible to Chinese customers shortly.
The surprise visit by Musk was deemed significant by equity analysts at Wedbush, who consider the availability of FSD in China as a crucial element in Tesla’s long-term valuation and autonomous driving strategy. Chinese competitors, such as Xpeng, have been actively striving to gain an advantage by introducing similar software.
During the visit, Musk also sought approval to transfer data collected by Tesla’s Chinese fleet abroad, enabling the company to enhance its autonomous driving technologies through advanced algorithm training.
Musk’s trip to China was not publicly announced, and Tesla has yet to comment. The discussions between Musk and Premier Li regarding FSD and data transfer were not explicitly mentioned in Chinese state media reports.
