When Elon Musk first set up a Tesla factory in China, he seemed to be in a favorable position.
He was able to contact the senior leaders and obtained a policy change that conducive to Tesla.He also got workers who were used to working for a long time and had less labor protection.Prior to, his factory in California clashed with US regulators due to labor conditions.Shanghai's factories help Tesla the world's most valuable automobile company and Musk also make Musk a super rich.
Tesla has encountered difficulties now.Musk helped create his own competitors -Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers who are competing for market share and become national security concerns in the United States and Europe.
Tesla has benefited from a Chinese policy it helps to shape.
Tesla launched the first electric vehicle in California in 2008. The company made a profit from the state's requirements for automobile emissions, because it can sell to car manufacturers who do not meet the discharge targets worth billionsUS dollar emissions.
As Musk turned to China, the people who helped him lobby encouraged China to adopt similar policies.The email and other documents obtained by the Times show that they cooperate with California environmentalists who aim to purify Chinese air.
China adopted this policy in 2017, and the policy was also driven by groups that had nothing to do with Tesla.According to data from the market analysis company CRU Group, after the Shanghai factory started in Tesla's Shanghai factory in 2020, the company made hundreds of millions of dollars in selling emissions through this policy.
Musk's wealth is closely related to the Tesla Shanghai plant.
The Shanghai plant has replaced the Fremont Factory in California to become Tesla's largest and most productive factories, occupying more than half of the company's global delivery, and contributed most of its profits.
The Shanghai plant was completed and put into operation for less than a year, and Musk worked closely with an official of the Shanghai Municipal Government during that period.Under its care, the bank provided Tesla with a low -interest loan, and the loan conditions were so generous. Senior officials in the automotive industry recalled that a minister had opposed it.
China has also changed the ownership of foreign -funded enterprises, so that Tesla can build factories without Chinese local partners, which is the first case for foreign car companies operating in China.
Musk saves production and labor costs in Shanghai, and even if he thinks, he cannot let himself easily get rid of China.Because his wealth is linked to Tesla's stock price, the personal wealth of the billionaire depends on what China will happen now.
Tesla's development in China tied Musk with China.
Musk's dependence on the Shanghai plant may have the opportunity to impact him.
This makes the United States worry, because Musk's second company SpaceX has a sensitive contract from the Pentagon, and controls most of the global satellite Internet through its star network.
Musk has said that he should not confuse his two companies.But while he criticized American politicians, he also praised China and stood on the side of China in geopolitical disputes.
When he had an online dialogue with two US Congress in July last year, he called himself "a bit pro -China."
China provides him with a way to avoid labor problems.
Musk once hinted that American workers were lazy. He asked Tesla's Front Factory to increase his work intensity, and he himself sometimes even slept on the floor of the factory.
In Shanghai, Musk can avoid US regulators and labor organizations.
The Chinese factory workers interviewed by us described that during the Shanghai seal in Shanghai in 2022, they were required to have six consecutive days in a row.
Some workers sleep on the floor of the factory, just like Musk in Fremont.Workers say they can choose not to work, but their salary will be reduced.
Tesla has stimulated the development of electric vehicles in China.
China wants to use the Tesla plant to start China's electric vehicle industry.This is what happened later.
Tesla's Shanghai factory shifted to the use of batteries and components made in China, and in some cases to help suppliers develop technology. These suppliers later sold technology to Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers.Tesla has also cultivated a generation of talents.
Now, Europe and the United States are trying to catch up.French Minister of Finance Bruno Lermel said China has led Europe for five to seven years.
Tesla himself has been increasingly affected.At the end of last year, the global car sales of Chinese competitors BYD surpassed Tesla.Musk warned in January this year that without trade barriers, BYD and other Chinese companies would "almost destroy most of the world's car companies."
