Why Elon Musk visiting China unannounced amid troubles in Tesla?

Elon Musk, the World’s richest man and the CEO of Tesla touched down in the Chinese capital city of Beijing Sunday.

The 52-year-old founder of SpaceX met senior Chinese officials and other experts where they discussed the crucial matters of data transfer, reported the Guardian, citing sources.

Chinese media Xinhua reported that Musk met Premier Li Qiang in the capital where the former told the billionaire about Tesla’s development in the country a successful US-China commercial ties.

Four years ago, the Texas-based carmaker released its Full Self-Driving autonomous software, however, it could not make its way to China despite being the second-largest market.

The Tesla CEO said earlier that the automaker may make FSD available to customers in China very soon, while responding to a user on his X platform, formerly called Twitter.

The competitors in China including Xpeng also released similar autonomous software to seek an edge over the US carmaker.

Musk also termed Chinese car manufacturers as "the most competitive car companies in the world".

According to a Guardian report, "Musk hopes to obtain approval to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its autonomous driving technologies."

Tesla has a heap of data collected since 2021 from its Shanghai facility and was not sent to the US.

On the other side, there is also an auto show ongoing in Beijing which is set to conclude on May 4, in which Tesla does not have any stall or booth.

“It is good to see electric vehicles making progress in China. All cars will be electric in the future,” Musk said in a video Sunday.

Tesla’s sales reportedly fell 13% ($17.3bn) this year. Cumulatively, it dropped 9%. The company’s share price also slashed 32%.