This weekend, the Wall Street Journal reports that Tesla Motors is trying to press the Obama administration to make foreign auto sales in China a vital topic when Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the US in September. Primarily, Tesla wants China to relax its requirements for foreign auto companies to sell within the country as electric-vehicle competition there continues to rise.
As far back as February 2014, Tesla identified China as an extremely important market for the car company’s continued growth. Around that time, the Chinese government announced it would give Model S buyers a larger-than-expected subsidy in an effort to improve air quality in the country. Soon after, CEO Elon Musk told investors and reporters that the Chinese market will be good to Tesla when the company started shipping its cars. “It will be unlikely that we will be able to satisfy demand in China this year,” Musk said back in early 2014.
