Musk, China’s industry minister discuss future of new energy vehicles – La Prensa Latina Media
Beijing, May 31 (EFE).- China’s Industry Minister Jin Zhuanglong met Tesla CEO Elon Musk in Beijing on Wednesday.
The two “exchanged views on the development of new energy vehicles and intelligent networked vehicles,” the ministry said in a brief statement.
It is Musk’s first trip to China since 2020 and comes as his company faces tough competition from Chinese automakers.
On Tuesday, Musk met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who assured him that China “will continue to unswervingly promote high-level opening up, and is committed to creating a better market-oriented, legalized and internationalized business environment for companies from all over the world, including Tesla.”
China’s modernization “will create unprecedented growth potential and market demand,” the minister said, adding that the country’s “new energy automobile industry has broad prospects for development.”
The minister said that China’s development was “an opportunity for the world.”
“A healthy, stable and constructive Sino-US relationship is not only beneficial to both countries, but also beneficial to the world,” he added, in a readout of the meeting posted on the Chinese foreign ministry’s website.
For his part, Musk noted that the “interests of the United States and China are intertwined, like Siamese twins, who are inseparable from each other.”
“Tesla opposes ‘decoupling and breaking chains’ and is willing to continue to expand its business in China and share China’s development opportunities,” he added, according to the statement.
In 2019, Tesla opened its first Gigafactory outside the United States in Shanghai.
The plant delivered 710,000 vehicles in 2022, which was half of the company’s global delivery, according to the official Global Times newspaper.
In April, the American company announced that it would open a new factory in Shanghai to produce its Megapack energy storage batteries used to stabilize electricity grids and prevent power outages.
This new Tesla plant in Shanghai will have a production capacity of about 10,000 Megapack batteries per year, according to the company. EFE
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