Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a brief appearance at the 2021 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen and praised China and reassured the company’s commitment towards the country. Musk said that during his video appearance at the conference which was hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of China. Musk confirmed that his company would increase investment and R&D efforts in the country. “Tesla will continue to expand its footprint in China. The company would increase investment in R&D efforts. We are hopeful of building a digitized future that will have shared benefits, responsibilities, and governance,” Musk said at the conference. The statement comes as the career page of Tesla reveals that the company in China is looking to fill several positions for its R&D Center.
This is the second time in less than a month when Musk was seen complimenting China, which is imperative to Tesla’s electric vehicle company. Earlier, Musk had showered praises on China during pre-recorded stream at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress. He had said that Chinese automakers were among the most competitive companies in the world. “I will frankly say that I have observed that this country spends a lot of resources and efforts on using the latest digital technologies across different industries.” During the latest conference, whose theme was a move ‘towards a new era of digital civilization’ and ‘working together to build a community within a shared future in cyberspace.’ Musk put his perspective on the topic during the conference. While replying to a question on data security, Musk said that data protection should be a mutual effort. “Data protection in relation to intelligent and connected vehicles (ICV) is not a topic of concern for any individual industry. This should be a mutual effort and all industry players should join hands for this,” Musk replied.
He said that Tesla has set up a data center in China that will help the company to localize all data generated from businesses in the country. This will include production, sales, service, and charging. Musk emphasized that Tesla stores all personally identifiable information only in China. He said that Tesla does not transfer data overseas. Tesla transfers data only in rare cases. This includes instances when there is a requirement for spare parts. Even in that case, data is transferred only when it is approved for transfer internationally. Meanwhile, the R&D Center of Tesla in China is near completion. According to reports, the Center will be designing the company’s highly-anticipated USD 25,000 car. Also, the Shanghai factory of Tesla is expected to produce over 300,000 cars in the first nine months. The factory is manufacturing Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers. The vehicles are made for domestic as well as international markets. According to reports, the company shipped over 240,000 vehicles during the first eight months. However, Tesla has not shared any information on the factory’s production. The targets are being said even when the industry is facing a chip shortage. Companies are expecting to have a proper supply of semiconductors by next year.
