Tesla’s shares have jumped after reports the firm has cleared an important regulatory hurdle in China by partnering with search giant Baidu.
The agreement with Baidu that is being reported would allow Tesla to go ahead with some autonomous driving technology in China.
Tesla is one of the world’s largest electric car manufacturers, and China is its second biggest market, but it has yet to launch autonomous driving there as it has in other countries, such as the US.
Last Friday, the US auto regulator opened a probe into the “adequacy” of a software update Tesla made to try to fix problems with its autopilot feature.
This was a drop from the $23.3bn recorded in the first three months of 2023 and lower than analysts’ predictions of just over $22bn.
It pinned its falling sales on “additional competitors” and “changes in government and economic incentives” for electric vehicles.
A quarter of electric vehicles sold in the EU this year will be made in China.
While many western manufacturers including Tesla, BMW and Renault make electric cars in China that they import to Europe, Chinese-branded EVs alone are set to account for 11 % of the EU’s electric car market this year, rising to 20 % by 2027.
However, higher European tariffs on imported EVs also risk catching Tesla, BMW and Renault’s Dacia brand, which all sell battery models in Europe that are manufactured in China,
Ebikes and mopeds, known as electric micromobility, were responsible for two-thirds of the 1.5m barrels of oil displaced a day by EVs in 2022
there were almost 300m two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles globally in 2022, compared with around 26m electric cars.
Electric cars can be very heavy : a campaign group calculates that EVs are on average between 300kg and 400kg heavier.
Its decision was the latest sign that large automakers have been forced to rethink their strategy for electric vehicles because sales for those models are slowing.
Because they are still learning how to make the cars and their batteries at lower cost, the companies have not been able to bring out more affordable models.
Many car buyers interested in electric vehicles appear to be choosing hybrid cars, which can cost just a few hundred dollars more than comparable gasoline-only models and in some cases offer much better fuel economy.
im Cook met fin au projet Titan, lancé il y a dix ans chez Apple pour concevoir une voiture électrique et autonome haut de gamme. Une partie des 2.000 salariés concernés seront réaffectés à l’intelligence artificielle.
Apple est en effet sur la défensive, après quatre trimestres de baisse des ventes et des perspectives assombries en Chine.