Tesla vehicles have become approved as government vehicles in China – a first for a foreign-owned automaker.
It could open the door for large government sales in the country.
Over the last few months, Tesla has made a lot of progress in getting closer to the Chinese government.
The automaker managed to fix its problem of being identified as a security risk by changing the way it handled data coming from its vehicles in China and that also opened the door to the possibility of being approved for deployment of its Full Self-Driving system in the country.
That happened after CEO Elon Musk visited the country and met with a few high-level government officials.
Now, we learn that the provincial Jiangsu government approved the Tesla Model Y made in China as a government vehicle (via The Paper – translated from Chinese):
Recently, the Jiangsu Government Procurement Network disclosed the “Announcement on the Shortlisted Participants of the 2024-2025 New Energy Vehicle Framework Agreement Procurement for Party and Government Organs, Institutions and Group Organizations in Jiangsu Province (III)”, which showed that Tesla Model Y has entered the Jiangsu Provincial Government’s new energy vehicle procurement catalog.
This means that any level of government in Jiangsu, which is a province of 85 million people and the richest per capita in China, can purchase Tesla Model Y vehicles.
Tesla is the only foreign-owned automaker on the list. Volvo is also on it, but it is owned by China’s Geely.
There has been some public pushback against the announcement in China, but the government reiterated that it only applies to Tesla Model Y vehicles that the automaker built in China.
Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai is now the automaker’s highest-producing plant in the world.
Electrek’s Take
This could open up Tesla to some large-scale government sales in China, but I think it also shows that Tesla is increasingly cozying up to the Chinese government, especially in the last few months.
China is a critical market for electric vehicles and therefore, for Tesla.
It is the largest auto market in the world, and it is adopting electric vehicles at a higher rate than any other large auto market, including the US.