Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Elon Musk) expressed his position on the recent tariffs imposed by the US government on Chinese electric vehicles to investors via video link during the Vivatech technology summit held in Paris, France. Musk believes that taxing electric vehicles is a market-distorting measure that will hinder fair competition in the industry.

Recently, to support domestic manufacturing, US President Biden announced new tariffs on a range of Chinese imports, including electric vehicles. About $18 billion worth of Chinese imports will be affected, with the tariff on electric vehicles quadrupling to more than 100%. Musk expressed his surprise and noted that neither he nor Tesla requested the imposition of these new tariffs.

Musk also emphasized that, Tesla has not been subjected to any special treatment or additional tariffs in the Chinese market. However, Tesla's sales in China have plummeted as the local electric vehicle market has grown rapidly. In the first quarter of this year, Tesla's revenue saw its largest decline since 2012, and its stock price also fell by more than 30%.

As Musk made these remarks, Tesla's mega energy storage factory in Shanghai officially began construction. Zhu Xiaotong, Tesla's Senior Vice President, stated at the ceremony that this factory is Tesla's first mega energy storage factory outside the United States and also marks another major investment project in China since Tesla entered the market a decade ago.

With Tesla's Autopilot feature FSD passing data security compliance audits in China and Shanghai easing restrictions on cross-border data flows for electric vehicles, Musk's visit to China has cleared obstacles for the development of Tesla's business in the country. Tesla hopes to achieve the ambitious goal of producing 20 million electric vehicles per year by 2030.

In the renewable energy sector, Musk is looking forward to the future of large-scale energy storage systems. During his tightly scheduled visit to China, he met with Zeng Yuqun, the Chairman of CATL, China's battery manufacturing giant. CATL is committed to accelerating its globalization efforts, and despite the uncertainty of the international situation in 2024, the company remains optimistic about the global consensus on the new energy trend.

Zeng Yuqun shared the transformative potential of energy storage technology and innovative solutions to challenges facing the current technology industry during the opening ceremony of the BEYOND EXPO 2024 technology conference not long ago. CATL's investment in research and development is considerable, with more than $10 billion invested in the past decade and research and development expenses reaching $2.5 billion last year alone.