Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks with CNBC on May 16, 2023.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is scheduled to visit China this week, his first visit in three years, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Musk plans to meet with Chinese officials and visit Tesla’s Shanghai factory, two sources said.
It wasn’t immediately clear who Musk would meet with or what he would discuss. A source with knowledge of the trip declined to name him because the matter is private.
Tesla and China’s State Council Information Office did not respond to requests for comment.
Reuters reported in March that Musk planned a trip to China and was seeking to meet with Premier Li Qiang as early as April, but the exact timing would depend on Li’s convenience, the sources said.
China is Tesla’s second largest market after the United States, and the Shanghai factory is Tesla’s largest production base.
Musk also owns the social media platform Twitter, which is banned in China, although some people access it via a virtual private network (VPN).
Musk’s visit to China will be his first since he sent the internet into a frenzy when he danced on stage during an event at Tesla’s Shanghai factory in early 2020.
It also comes at a time when Tesla is grappling with multiple issues, including growing competition from Chinese automakers exporting Chinese-made electric vehicles amid sluggish demand in the world’s largest car market.
Tesla has yet to update on plans to increase production at its Shanghai factory by 450,000 vehicles a year, but in April it announced it would build a factory in Shanghai to produce Megapack energy storage products.
The company submitted a plan to the local authorities to expand the powertrain production capacity of its Shanghai plant to 1.75 million units a year.
China’s national planning officials have been wary of approving new capacity, plagued by overcapacity in the auto industry, which includes more than 100 companies.
Musk told CNBC earlier this month that “there are some constraints on our ability to expand our business in China.” “It’s not about demand,” he added.
In the same interview, Musk said tensions between the United States and China “should be of concern to everyone.”
Tesla is building a factory in Mexico that is expected to produce low-cost electric vehicles based on its next-generation platform.