China News Service, September 10 (Zhongxin Finance and Economics Zhang Nigecheng) In August 2022, the 1 millionth Tesla made in China in the Shanghai Gigafactory officially rolled off the assembly line, just over three years after the factory officially started construction. time. As the first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturer to enter China, why has Tesla achieved outstanding perform
China News Service, September 10 (Zhongxin Finance and Economics Zhang Nigecheng) In August 2022, the 1 millionth Tesla made in China in the Shanghai Gigafactory officially rolled off the assembly line, just over three years after the factory officially started construction. time.
As the first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturer to enter China, why has Tesla achieved outstanding performance in China?
What kind of charm does the Chinese market hold for Tesla?
A few days ago, Tao Lin, vice president of Tesla, accepted an exclusive interview with Chinanews.com.
Tao Lin, vice president of Tesla (photo courtesy)
The interview transcript is as follows:
Chinanews.com: As the first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturer to enter China, what do you think of Tesla's development in China over the years and the business environment in China?
Tao Lin:
At the end of 2013, Tesla officially entered the Chinese market.
In the past 9 years, Tesla has continued to expand its investment layout in China, and its products have entered thousands of households.
Tesla's healthy development in China has become an excellent example of China's opening to the outside world.
Tesla is committed to accelerating the sustainable development of talent.
More than 99.9% of Tesla's Shanghai factory employees are Chinese.
At present, Tesla has also cultivated a whole industry chain talent pool from front-line operators, to cutting-edge technology talents, and then to management talents in the new energy industry.
Tesla's rapid development in China is inseparable from a good business environment.
Against the macro backdrop of the global economic downturn, China has maintained its long-term economic fundamentals, becoming an important engine for the recovery of the world economy and providing companies with broad market opportunities.
At the same time, the continuous expansion of high-level opening, the continuous improvement and optimization of the business environment, and the complete industrial supporting infrastructure will also become an indispensable and important part of attracting foreign investment.
Chinanews.com: As a leader in new energy vehicles, what technological innovations does Tesla have in the upstream and downstream industry chains, power batteries, and software of new energy vehicles? How does the Chinese market satisfy the Tesla-related industrial chain?
Tao Lin:
The earliest electric vehicle power batteries are mainly lead-acid batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries, and the battery life is very low.
For the first time, Tesla used lithium batteries in cars, achieving breakthroughs in cruising range, vehicle performance and safety.
Tesla adopts a cylindrical cell design, which is more scalable and more efficient in heat dissipation, and the damage of a single cell has less impact on the module, effectively improving safety.
For the positive electrode of the battery, Tesla uses nickel-cobalt-aluminum materials, and the negative electrode innovatively uses graphite-doped silicon to achieve higher energy density.
In terms of software, Tesla has developed an accurate battery management system that monitors battery physical parameters in real time, estimates battery status, online diagnosis and early warning, balances charge and discharge and pre-charge control, and achieves thermal management control and Communication, sensitive perception and quick response, to ensure that the battery works in a safe condition.
At present, the localization rate of Shanghai Super Factory's industrial chain has reached 95%, and a "4-hour circle of friends" has been established in Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo, Nantong and other Yangtze River Delta regions, forming a whole ecological chain of new energy auto parts, and has also opened up nationwide The automotive industry chain market has formed a complete "safe, independent and controllable" industrial ecology. The improvement of the localization process has led to the improvement of production efficiency, and has also cultivated a number of high-level supplier partners for the industry.
At present, China's new energy vehicle industry has formed a complete industrial chain that integrates hardware such as body, floor, and three-electrical systems, to software such as intelligent co*ckpit and automatic assisted driving.
Chinanews.com: In April this year, Tesla's production capacity was affected by the epidemic. How did it quickly restore production capacity since then? Benefit from what?
Tao Lin:
As a typical epitome of Shanghai's restart of the automotive industry chain and the start of the tough battle for resumption of work and production, Tesla Shanghai Super Factory has resumed work one after another under the unified deployment of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other relevant ministries and commissions and the Shanghai Municipal Government. Under the premise, a full path to restart the industrial operation of supply, manufacturing, transportation and delivery will be gradually developed.
In order to help leading companies such as Tesla solve the difficulties encountered in resuming work and production, the Shanghai Municipal Government has held several special meetings, and the Lingang New Area has also established a working group with Tesla to coordinate all parties to ensure the efficient resumption of work.
Tesla's hundreds of suppliers are not only all over the country, but also include many overseas supply links. Relevant departments have driven and boosted the supply of key parts and warehousing logistics and other links, and the resumption of work by Tesla has led to the coordinated resumption of work and resumption of relevant industrial chains. Produce.
With the strong support of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce and other government departments, the capacity utilization rate of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory returned to 100% in June. At the same time, Tesla also actively promoted and helped brother companies in the industry chain to resume work efficiently. , to promote the entire new energy vehicle industry chain from production to logistics, from sales to delivery as soon as possible.
The picture shows Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory (for photo)
Chinanews.com: Traditional car companies are transitioning to new energy sources. Will this create new challenges for Tesla?
Tao Lin:
Tesla has always adhered to an open and inclusive attitude. In order to promote the application and development of new energy vehicle technology, Tesla has published more than 300 patents since 2014; And so on, with practical actions to help accelerate the development of the industry.
Tesla CEO Musk once publicly stated: "Tesla was founded to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. If anyone can make good use of Tesla's patented technology, just use it." Potential competitors brought by patents, Musk said: "The real competitive advantage of technology is that you are fast enough to innovate."
Tesla's vision to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy" requires an industry-wide effort.
Industry transformation will help form a mature industrial chain, cultivate green consumption habits, and promote infrastructure upgrades, which will also be beneficial to Tesla's long-term development.
Tesla hopes to provide more new ideas for the industry through continuous technological innovation, drive the industry to progress together, and share development with industry partners.
Chinanews.com: In the past ten years, how has Tesla changed consumers and the market's perception of new energy vehicles?
Tao Lin:
Tesla has been striving to sharpen its muscles through innovation. While breaking the industry "ceiling", it has also broken the established rules of the industry. One by one, subversive innovations have brought a vibrant development ecology to the entire industry.
Ten years ago, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles had not exceeded 1%, and it was in the start-up stage mainly driven by policy.
Today, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has reached about 20%, and China's new energy vehicle production has ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years.
In the process of China's new energy market from "policy-oriented" to "market-oriented", Chinese consumers have also become an important cornerstone of the vigorous development of China's new energy market.
They are "inclusive" and "diversified", and they have the world's leading environmental awareness. They no longer wait and see about pure electric travel, but actively participate.
Today, new energy vehicles have gradually become one of the main means of transportation for the public. The entire industrial chain of equipment, materials, and manufacturing represented by new energy vehicles will reshape the future energy and transportation pattern.
Chinanews.com: What is the status of the Chinese market for Tesla? How do you view Tesla's development prospects in China?
Tao Lin:
China is Tesla's first country outside the United States to deploy a super factory. The Shanghai super factory is Tesla's global export center, and it has become our most important production capacity backing with unparalleled high efficiency.
At the same time, Chinese consumers' strong demand for high-quality electric vehicles has also made the Chinese market one of Tesla's target markets with the greatest growth potential.
The Shanghai R&D Innovation Center is Tesla's first R&D center outside the United States based on vehicle development, including software, hardware, electronics, materials, power and energy engineering teams.
It represents our determination to further localize and recognize and attach importance to China's human resources.
At present, the country has issued a large number of policies to support the development of the new energy vehicle industry. In terms of charging infrastructure, the government is also continuing to provide support. In particular, the Ministry of Transport recently issued a document proposing that accelerating the construction of charging infrastructure along highways will inevitably play a role in the rapid development of the industry. Actively promote.
In addition, consumers' increasing acceptance of green travel is also an important reason for Tesla's firm confidence in China's development.
In the August sales data just released by the Passenger Federation, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory achieved nearly 400,000 deliveries from January to August.
The Model Y set a monthly delivery record of 62,169 units, ranking first in overall passenger car sales in August.
This confirms that Chinese consumers' acceptance of new energy vehicles has reached an unprecedented inflection point.
Musk once said: "Few people seem to realize that China is leading the world in renewable energy generation and electric vehicles." Tesla's mission is to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." Tesla China is an important force in realizing this vision.
(Finish)
