On May 30, with the landing of Elon Musk's private jet Gulfstream G650ER, the much-anticipated Tesla CEO began his three-year journey to China again。On January 7, 2020, Musk attended the first delivery ceremony of the Chinese-made Model 3 at Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory and contributed to the classic dance at the time.。

At that time, Tesla was facing executive departures, lack of production capacity, SEC penalties, cash flow constraints and other difficulties, is the Shanghai super factory of light speed landing, to help it turn the tide, back on track。

Today, Tesla seems to be in a bottleneck again, and the "price war" strategy started by it has not reached a good volume and price balance, and even hit its net profit and gross margin in the first quarter of this year.。Financial data show that Tesla's total revenue in the first quarter was 233.$2.9 billion, compared with 187 in the same period last year.$5.6 billion compared to a 24% increase; however, its net profit increased from 32% in the same period last year..$8 billion, down to 25.$3.9 billion; gross margin also increased from 29.1% down to 19.3%, causing investors to worry。

According to the latest data, Tesla's Shanghai super factory delivered 75,842 new cars in April, down 14.66%, signs of weakness in demand。Despite this, the Chinese market remains Tesla's most important overseas market and its second-largest market in the world, but market growth has begun to slow.。According to Tesla's 2022 annual results report, Tesla's total revenue during the reporting period was 814.US $6.2 billion, up 51% year-on-year。Among them, the Chinese market achieved revenue of 181.$4.5 billion, up 31.07%, accounting for 22.27%。Not only does it account for less than 26% of 2021, but it also lags behind the overall growth rate, which has been over 100% for two consecutive years.。

The reason has a significant relationship with the rapid rise of China's local new energy vehicle companies.。According to the name Subramanian (Pras Subramanian) estimates, in BYD, ideal, NIO and other car companies to catch up, Tesla's real share of the market has fallen to 10%。It can be said that China is now the world's new energy vehicle town, Tesla's biggest potential future competitor, is likely to be in the land under the feet of Musk now。

In the face of internal and external troubles, Tesla has made some changes。At Tesla's 2023 shareholder meeting in the middle of this month, Musk said he would seek an advertising sales model for the first time in Tesla's 20-year history.。In addition, Musk resigned as CEO of Twitter in response to some Tesla shareholders believing that he "has multiple roles and cannot spend enough time and energy on Tesla's development."。

In terms of overseas markets, it is reported that Tesla has restarted negotiations with the Indian government to seek to invest and set up factories there.。Previously, Tesla insisted on first through the import of cars, test the Indian car market, in order to try to calculate the high cost of tariffs, encountered opposition from India, and in this meeting, Tesla did not mention the tariffs again, to make major concessions.。Some analysts pointed out that under the predicament, Tesla's overseas strategy has quietly changed。

It is reported that the staff carefully designed Musk's first dinner after arriving in Beijing, the menu specifically to "horse" and "E" as the theme, to correspond to Musk's name in Chinese and English initials。The dinner consists of 16 dishes, including Italian black vinegar pine meat, nostalgic mother's dish, Majiagou celery cherry blossom shrimp, American elephant clam, Maofu Banquet Fried Sauce Noodles and other delicacies.。

However, in this crisis-ridden situation, Musk went to the ocean, to do things, certainly more than eating so simple。

Musk Meets Zeng Yuqun to Deepen Cooperation between Tesla and Ningde Times in U.S. and China

Yesterday, according to media sources, Musk has met with global power battery leader Ningde Times Chairman Zeng Yuqun, a professional analysis, the two discussions are likely to include a series of possible future cooperation, including cooperation in the United States to build a plant, as well as the upcoming construction of Tesla's Shanghai energy storage super plant raw material supply。

At the end of March this year, there have been media reports that Tesla has informed the White House of its plans to build a battery factory in cooperation with the Ningde era, tentatively located in Texas.。According to industry analysts, Tesla may seek help from the Ningde era for 4680 battery technology and lithium iron carbonate battery technology, because lithium iron phosphate battery technology is almost blank in the current mainstream technology route in the United States.。

For Ningde Times, it applied for a patent on the technology as early as 2015 and took a stake in a related company in 2021.。In March this year, Ningde Times and Hunan Yuneng, one of the leaders in the field of lithium iron phosphate, reached a cooperation agreement, the latter will design and develop new lithium iron phosphate products, and produce new lithium iron phosphate products according to the needs of Ningde Times.。

In addition to the technical support of "Ning Wang," the preferential policies in the United States have also opened the door to Tesla.。Under the upcoming U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, newly established battery plants will be able to get the best-case scenario that consumers will be able to get half of the $75 million tax credit for buying electric vehicles loaded with new batteries in the early stages of production, and eventually get the full tax credit as battery raw materials are finally fully localized.。

With both policy support and land planning, coupled with the technical support of the Ningde era, it's a sure-fire deal for Tesla.。

In addition to the construction of the plant, Ningde Times is an important supplier of Tesla's Shanghai energy storage super plant.。

In April this year, Tesla said it would build a new energy storage super factory in Shanghai to produce mega-large commercial energy storage batteries, mainly serving public utility projects and large enterprise customers.。According to the initial plan, the plant will produce 10,000 megapacks per year, with an energy storage capacity of nearly 40GWh, and is expected to start construction in the third quarter of 2023 and start production in the second quarter of 2024.。

It is reported that the megapack produced by Tesla came out in 2019。In 2022, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, Tesla upgraded Megapack, which changed the cathode material of its battery cells from ternary lithium to lithium iron phosphate.。Musk also revealed that the self-produced 4680 battery may be used on the technology in the future, but the current mass production progress of the battery has not been as expected。On the issue of lithium iron carbonate, Tesla and Ningde Times once again had an intersection of interests, and soon after Tesla announced that Ningde Times would be an important supplier of its lithium iron phosphate battery cells.。

Tesla's megapack capacity is currently concentrated in the Megafactory in Lasrop, California, but equipment in the region continues to be in short supply, and the order delivery date has been postponed to the fourth quarter of 2024.。In such a situation, Tesla must address the immediate megapack capacity problem, and the primary thing to maintain capacity is to stabilize its ties with key existing suppliers, including the Ningde era.。The content of this meeting is also likely to include related matters。

After several years of hard work, Megapack has been in North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and other places, the total installed capacity of more than 5 gigawatt-hours, and in accordance with China's 14th Five-Year "energy planning" target, China's total installed power capacity to reach 3 billion kilowatts in 2025, flexible regulation of power construction to reach 7..200 million kilowatts, accounting for 24%, but the current national flexible regulation capacity is only 0.About 500 million kilowatts, huge development space。If Tesla can grasp this window, the energy storage business will become another important business growth point, and its prospects are no less than its existing new energy vehicle business.。

Musk has said at the shareholders' meeting that in the future, fixed battery storage will achieve more than 500Gwh per year, and the demand is almost unlimited.。

Musk wants to promote the commercialization of FSD in China.

It is also reported that another important task of Musk's visit to China is to communicate with Chinese government officials about the commercialization of FSD (fully autonomous driving) in China.。Previously, the technology, as one of Tesla's superior technologies, was questioned by the Chinese market because of data security issues.。

Faced with the crisis of confidence, Tesla responded positively and announced in 2021 that it would establish a localized data center in China to localize data storage.。Tesla promised that all data generated by the sale of vehicles in the Chinese mainland market will be stored in China, and if there is a demand for data to leave the country, it will be reviewed by the national regulatory authorities to confirm the safety before sending data abroad.。At the end of October of the same year, Tesla said that it had completed the relevant approval and filing of the data center in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Shanghai Data Center Construction Guidelines (2021 Edition), and built the Shanghai Super Factory Data Center to store Chinese operational data such as factory production.。

Tesla's sincerity has also been recognized by the Chinese side, in the middle of this month "high-quality development research line" media interview group's briefing, Shanghai Economic and Information Commission intelligent manufacturing promotion division deputy director Chen Coke introduced, Tesla as a new energy vehicle leading enterprises, for Shanghai to build a world-class automotive industry center has made a positive contribution。He also pointed out that in the next stage, Shanghai will further deepen its cooperation with Tesla, promote the layout of functional sectors such as autonomous driving and robotics in Shanghai, and jointly build a technology industry cluster with core technology advantages and facing the global market.。

Now it seems that the speech may be an important opportunity to promote Musk's visit to China.。On the issue of the commercialization of FSD, support from the Chinese government level is essential for Tesla, and once FSD technology is fully launched in China, superimposed on Tesla's huge sales of new energy vehicles in China, the current predicament of the business segment will probably be reversed.。This time, Musk wants to revitalize the stock market of Tesla's new energy vehicles in China and provide "China support" for its business growth.。

FSD technical level, Tesla is also speeding up the pace of research and development。According to a research report released by CITIC Securities on May 30, Tesla has put its FSD algorithm to v11..4. The end-to-end capability of FSD is realized, that is, the intelligent driving function including high-speed piloting, urban road piloting and parking can respond to the environment faster, and adjust the speed when necessary to ensure that all relevant Personnel can get a safer experience。

Last night, stimulated by Musk's visit to China, Tesla shares all the way up, had risen nearly 6% in early trading, closed up more than 4%, the market value of the night rose more than $25 billion。

Coincidentally, Musk's visit to China yesterday coincided with the successful launch of the Shenzhou 16 manned spacecraft.。For the "space fan" and SpaceX CEO, the incident no doubt also caught his attention。In response, Musk praised in a tweet that China's space engineering is "far more advanced than most people realize."。So maybe only someone who has actually launched a rocket knows how hard it is to launch a rocket.。

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