China

China is leading the world in solar power installations by a long run. ASECEA is predicting that 50GW of solar power is well within reach of being installed this year. In June and July of 2017, China installed 25GW of solar power – and they’ll push the globe past 100GW total for the year.

At China’s ‘State of the Union address’ equivalent, just yesterday, president Xi Jinping said, “Any harm we inflict on nature will eventually return to haunt us… this is a reality we have to face.”

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As we previously reported, virtually all automakers (except for Tesla) have asked China to slow down their electric car mandate.

Today, the Chinese government announced that they are delaying the implementation of the mandate by a year, but it’s not to say that the auto industry lobbying had its way entirely.
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GM has been quiet about its plans for electric vehicles after the Bolt EV, which came out almost a year ago. They hinted at new EVs built of the Bolt’s platform and they claim to be serious about the electrification of their vehicle lineup, but not much has come of it so far.

It’s another matter in China where GM is now committing to 10 new electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
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The auto industry is once again attempting to slow down the rollout of electric vehicles.

Virtually all automakers, except for Tesla of course, have sent a letter to the Chinese government in an attempt to have them drastically weaken their zero-emission vehicle mandate.
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As we often report, several countries are pushing some impressive goals to transition their car fleet to electric. Now China is feeling the pressure to act because of its growing air pollution problem and the country looks likely to turn to a ZEV mandate to achieve its own goals for the transition to electric transport.

The latest draft of the proposed legislation is pushing for a relatively aggressive mandate that is already causing some panic amongst automakers heavily investing in the country now that it has become the biggest car market in the world.
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Yesterday, Tesla inaugurated its 100th Supercharger in China located at its ‘Tesla experience center’ in the business district in Beijing, and for the occasion, the automaker announced the official launch of  ‘Tesla Public Charging Partner Program’ in the country.

Under the program, Tesla is inviting hotel groups, commercial real estate companies, industrial parks, office buildings, banks, resorts, and other businesses across the country to participate in Tesla’s Supercharger and Destination Charger networks.
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Just a week ago, we reported that the first shipment of Model X’s has cleared customs and that the company’s stores and service centers, also sometimes referred to as “experience centers” in China, are receiving the all-electric SUV.

Now we learn that Tesla hosted a special delivery event for the first 6 Model X owners in China.
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There’s no doubt that Tesla likes big factories. Its Fremont Factory is one of the biggest buildings on earth with 5.3 million square feet of manufacturing and office space – pictured above. The Gigafactory is set to be the biggest building on earth by footprint with 13 million square feet of space. The automaker also operates several other smaller but still fairly big facilities, like its final assembly line in Tilburg, Netherlands, which covers 840,000 square feet.

Now the company is about to invest in a factory in China. While the plans have yet to be unveiled, earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the automaker plans on securing a location and a local partner for a manufacturing facility in China by the middle of the 2016, and it looks like it will be huge.

We learn that Shanghai could now be the front-runner as Tesla reportedly signed a “non-binding memorandum of understanding” to invest in a $9 billion electric vehicle factory in the region.
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As we discussed in the past, the Tesla Model X is expected to be popular in China – in part due to its new air filtration system (though it’s now also available with the Model S). Now Tesla is about to start deliveries in the country and it will establish ‘operational headquarters’ in Beijing to manage its expansion in the country.
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China has developed a new charging standard in order to more efficiently deploy a charging infrastructure capable of supporting the up to 5 million electric vehicles it hopes to get on the roads by 2020. Tesla is now fully on board and announced today the launch of the ‘Tesla Charging Partner Program’ in China to promote the national EV charging standard.
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Ahead of the Beijing Auto Show this week, Toyota announced that it will create an electric plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of the Corolla for the Chinese market. While the automaker’s announcement appears to limit the vehicle’s availability to China for now, it does open the door for a possible global launch of a PHEV version of Toyota’s flagship midsize sedan.
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Jon McNeill, Tesla’s President of Global Sales and Services, was in China this week for the Model X’s Asian debut in Beijing. Tesla organized an event with hundreds of Model X reservation holders ahead of the Beijing Auto Show next week.

The production version Model X was officially launched in the US in September last year in Fremont, California. Last month, the SUV made its European debut at the Geneva Motor Show, and this week it was China’s turn.
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Tesla’s new and updated Model S unveiled last week is set to make its Chinese debut at the company’s new Jingang store today in Beijing. The new Model S is borrowing two new important features from its younger (but bigger) brother, the Model X.

The most obvious being the similar front fascia, but a feature that is likely to be particularly popular in China, where extreme smog is a recurring problem, is the HEPA air filtration system with ‘bioweapon defense mode’.
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Volvo announced this week that it will deploy up to 100 self-driving cars on China’s public roads. The automaker claims that the project will be “China’s most advanced autonomous driving experiment in which local drivers will test autonomous driving cars on public roads in everyday driving conditions.”
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Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the automaker plans on securing a location and a local partner for a manufacturing facility in China by the middle of the 2016. A foreign company needs a local partner in order to establish a manufacturing capacity in China.

Now we learn through a recent report from Chinese media that the California-based automaker is reportedly considering a factory location in Suzhou near Shanghai (see map above).

According to the report, the Suzhou government held a meeting on March 13 to discuss a project related to Tesla and executives from the company visited the region during the following week.
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Tesla announced today a special limited time offer to get a zero-interest loan for the higher-end versions of the Model S in China. The automaker is making the offer in partnership with the China Merchants Bank and is calling it a “New Year gift” since it coincides with the Chinese New Year, which started last week.

Other than on display cars and loaners, Tesla rarely offers special discounts on its vehicles, but yet it’s the second time that Chinese customers have received a special offer from the automaker. In December last year, Tesla offered a special discount of up to 80,000 Yuan ($12,500 US) with trade-ins for a limited time.
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Today, Tesla Motors opened the Chinese online design studio and order book for the Model X in China. Until now, Tesla had only allowed reservation holders in the US and Canada to configure and place an order for the new all-electric SUV, which makes China the first non-North American market to be able to order the car.
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According to a new report from Nikkei, Tesla anticipates very little growth in mainland China in 2016. The news agency reports that during his current trip in Hong Kong, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company aims to deliver 5,000 cars this year after falling short on its 2015 delivery goal of 10,000 units in China.
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A few weeks after Tesla Director of Global Communications Khobi Brooklyn confirmed that “Model 3 is on schedule” and that the company still plans to unveil the prototype in March, it’s now Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s turn to share his thoughts about the upcoming $35,000 sedan and he says he feels “pretty optimistic” about the vehicle.
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