Elon Musk is in China meeting with government officials, and Tesla CEO’s visit is sparking rumors of a FSD Beta release in China and of the new Model 3.
Musk’s private jet landed in Beijing this morning for a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
The CEO is believed to have stressed the importance of a good relationship between the US and China.
According to Bloomberg, Musk is also going to visit Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai and try to meet with Premier Li Qiang:
Musk is also expected to visit Tesla’s Shanghai factory, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The Tesla chief executive officer will potentially meet Premier Li Qiang as well to discuss automated-driving technology that Tesla is seeking to introduce in China, one of the people said.
The visit to Giga Shanghai comes as the factory is expected to soon start producing a new version of the Model 3.
Musk’s visit is sparking rumors that Tesla could launch the new version during the visit.
Furthermore, the fact that the CEO is expected to talk about automated driving with Li is also giving people hope that Tesla might be trying to gain regulatory approval to launch a FSD Beta in China.
China is becoming Tesla’s largest market, but regulatory hurdles have made it difficult for the automaker to release some of its driver-assist features under Autopilot and FSD.
Tesla is counting on the release of FSD Beta in China, resulting in a large boost in revenue since the automaker has now delivered hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the country that can be upgraded to FSD Beta.