"The overall prosperity and development of the new energy industry is the key to leading enterprises towards high-quality development." Gong Ling, General Manager of Tesla's South China region, said that Tesla adheres to an open strategy and opens up Tesla patents, charging networks, and advanced technology experience to the whole society, hoping to leverage the "catfish effect" to drive the high-quality development of the overall new energy industry.
On February 18, the first working day of the the Year of the Loong, Guangdong Provincial High Quality Development Conference was held in Shenzhen.
In recent years, the production and sales of new energy vehicles, which are regarded as manufacturing the "new three types", have maintained a "fast lane" development trend. Guangdong Province's new energy performance is impressive, with an annual production of 2.53 million new energy vehicles in 2023. One out of every four new energy vehicles in the country is made in Guangdong.
As one of the leading enterprises in new energy vehicles, Tesla was invited as a representative of a foreign-funded enterprise to participate in this high-quality development conference. 2024 is Tesla's eleventh year entering the Chinese market. At present, Tesla's business in China has involved three major areas: new energy vehicles, charging networks, and energy storage. In the future, Tesla will firmly increase research and development investment in products, services, charging, and energy storage to help achieve the "dual carbon" goal as soon as possible.
According to the data provided by Tesla, as of January 2024, the distribution of Tesla's direct stores in Chinese Mainland has exceeded 500, covering 76 cities in Chinese Mainland; There are 278 Tesla owned and authorized B&P centers, covering 171 cities in Chinese Mainland. In terms of charging network, Tesla continues to promote charging business in China. As of January 2024, the number of overcharging stations open to use by Tesla in Chinese Mainland has exceeded 1800, and the number of overcharging piles has exceeded 11000. With more than 700 destination charging stations and more than 2000 destination charging piles, Tesla's charging network layout covers provincial capitals and municipalities in Chinese Mainland.
When it comes to Tesla's business in China, Gong Ling emphasized China's supply chain advantages, which cannot be separated from the support of national policies.
Gong Ling stated in an interview with Southern Finance's media that Tesla alone has signed over 400 local first tier suppliers, of which over 60 have already entered the world stage under Tesla's leadership. At present, Tesla's Shanghai super factory has achieved a localization rate of over 95% for its components, an automation rate of over 95%, and can take a car offline in less than 40 seconds. "Tesla and its Chinese suppliers have a 'win-win' relationship, which is a closely cooperating and mutually supportive whole."
Shenzhen is a benchmark city for the development of new energy vehicles, with the city's new energy vehicle ownership and penetration rate ranking among the top in the world. In 2023, the added value of Shenzhen's automobile manufacturing industry above designated size increased by 47.3%, and the production of new energy vehicles increased by 104.2%.
The improvement of charging facilities for new energy vehicles is an important foundation for the gradual increase in the number of new energy vehicles in Shenzhen and the high-quality development of the new energy vehicle industry. Nowadays, Shenzhen is vigorously promoting the "new generation world-class automobile city" in a deeper and broader dimension. "A cup of coffee, fully charged departure" and "overcharged city" are becoming the new urban business cards of Shenzhen.
At the 2023 International Digital Energy Exhibition held in June last year, Shenzhen launched its first fully liquid cooled supercharging demonstration station and announced the launch of the "City of Supercharging" construction, setting the goal of building a supercharging station to make charging more convenient than refueling.
Gong Ling stated that Tesla recently landed the country's largest destination charging station in Shenzhen, and will actively develop its charging layout in the future, adding support to the construction of the "City of Supercharging".
Entering 2024, the price war in the new energy vehicle market has been one after another, but "oil to electricity" has become an irreversible trend. In addition, from the perspective of pure electric vehicles, the decrease in lithium carbonate prices has led to a decrease in car manufacturing costs, and pure electric vehicles also have more price space.
Gong Ling mentioned that Tesla is optimistic about the prospects of new energy vehicles in China, full of confidence and enthusiasm, and will continue to deeply cultivate the Chinese market.