BUSINESS

Is China more important for Tesla than India?

Elon Musk’s surprise visit to China on April 28, after he cancelled his much-anticipated trip to India, citing “very heavy Tesla obligations”, has won him approval for introducing Full Self-Driving (FSD) in Beijing.

Musk was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and founders of an Indian space startup. The Tesla CEO was expected to announce a $2-3 billion Electric Vehicle (EV) factory for India during his visit with some announcements related to Starlink.

But on Sunday, Musk met with China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang and made promise towards rolling out the FSD in the world’s biggest automobile market.

Previously, Tesla vehicles had faced bans from Chinese military installations and government sites over the issue of data collection.

Beijing gave preliminary approval to Tesla to launch FSD in China. Tesla’s cars made in China passed key data security and privacy requirement in China.