(Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory. Photo by Xia Zhibin)
Tesla and its CEO Musk have never lacked external attention. On September 5th, the news of Musk buying a house in Beijing for $150 million spread widely online. It is reported that Musk has purchased an aerial courtyard at 8 Xiaoyun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing.
It is reported that No. 8 Xiaoyun Road is a real estate project located in Chaoyang District, Beijing, with a total planned land area of 108 hectares and a planned construction land of 20 hectares. It has a convenient transportation system connecting the world. The project is located in the Yansha commercial district of Beijing and faces Chaoyang Park.
Regarding the rumors circulating on the internet, Tesla has denied them to a reporter from China Business News, stating, "False news, pure speculation." On September 6th, a real estate agent at 8 Xiaoyun Road told reporters, "There is no data showing transactions. The aerial courtyard is a new house with an average unit price of 500000 yuan/square meter and an area of 800-1100 square meters. You can buy almost two courtyards for 150 million US dollars
The reporter noticed that while the news of Musk buying a house in Beijing was circulating online, Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) has made progress in entering the Chinese market. On September 5th, Tesla's AI team released a product roadmap on social media, expecting to launch a fully autonomous driving FSD system in China and Europe in the first quarter of 2025, but still awaiting regulatory approval.
Public information shows that FSD, as Tesla's highest level autonomous driving product, mainly includes functions such as navigation assisted driving, automatic lane changing, automatic parking, intelligent summoning, traffic signal recognition, and (based on navigation routes) automatic turning of city roads.
The timing of Tesla FSD entering the Chinese market has always been closely monitored by the outside world. Regarding the news released by Tesla's AI team, Tesla told reporters, "The product roadmap is officially released, but there is no more information to share
Since the beginning of this year, Tesla's development in China has been continuously receiving positive news. In April, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the National Computer Network Emergency Technology Coordination Center issued a notice on the testing of four safety requirements for automotive data processing (first batch). Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory produced all models that met compliance requirements, making it the only foreign-funded enterprise that met compliance requirements.
The reporter noticed that in terms of data compliance, Tesla established a data center in Shanghai as early as 2021, achieving localized storage and reducing the risk of leakage. In addition, it also introduced third-party organizations to audit the company's information security management system.
It is understood that the models produced by Tesla at its Shanghai factory comply with relevant national standards, including anonymization of facial information outside the car, default non collection of cabin data, cabin data processing inside the car, and significant disclosure of personal information processing.
In July, the "2024-2025 New Energy Vehicle Framework Agreement Procurement for Party and Government Organs, Institutions, and Organizations in Jiangsu Province" was announced, and Tesla Model Y was included in the Jiangsu Provincial Government's New Energy Vehicle Procurement Catalogue. This is the first case in China where Tesla has been included in the government procurement catalogue. Afterwards, Tesla entered other local government procurement platforms one after another.
Tesla stated that its inclusion in the local government and state-owned enterprise procurement list reflects the fairness, impartiality, inclusiveness, and openness of the Chinese market, and also demonstrates that Tesla's related models can meet relevant requirements. In addition, Tesla's data security is fully compliant.
Regarding the potential "catfish effect" of Tesla FSD entering the Chinese market, a research report by Guotai Junan pointed out that Tesla's Shanghai factory was put into production in 2019, initiating localization and accelerating the industrialization of China's new energy vehicle industry, driving the transformation of local new car manufacturers and traditional car companies, and cultivating a large number of domestic new energy vehicle suppliers. The entry of FSD into China is expected to replicate the catfish effect of electric vehicles, promote the industrialization of the domestic intelligent driving industry, and drive local intelligent driving vehicle manufacturers and supply chains
Of course, for Tesla, the entry of FSD into China will also bring corresponding promotion effects. The above research report points out that if FSD enters China, it is expected to empower product strength, further boost Tesla's sales in China, and continue to benefit Tesla's industrial chain suppliers.
In August of this year, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory delivered a total of 86697 vehicles, an increase of 17% compared to the previous month. Among them, domestic sales exceeded 63000 vehicles, an increase of 37% compared to the previous month. In terms of vehicle models, Model Y has sold over 45000 units domestically; The Model 3 has 18000 units.
