Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the carmaker would not ship vehicles built in China at the company’s Shanghai plant to North America.
This morning, Reuters published a report citing “two people with knowledge of the planning,” indicating Tesla would ship vehicles from China to the United States and Canada to combat slowing demand in China while production rates have increased due to upgrades at the plant. The report indicated Tesla was experiencing slower demand in China for its vehicles, where they are the most cost-advantageous.
According to industry data from the CPCA, Tesla sold 71,704 vehicles in China in October. It was a decrease from a record month in September that saw the automaker deliver 83,135 vehicles. It does not necessarily reflect diminishing demand, as Tesla’s October sales outshined the same month last year by 32 percent.
The report claimed that Tesla was already looking to see if Chinese parts were compliant with U.S. and Canadian standards. Gigafactory Shanghai builds the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla’s two most popular vehicles.
However, Musk was quick to dispel the report by simply replying, “False.” He did not go into further detail.
The report is already making its way through Tesla’s community on Twitter, with some enthusiasts and journalists following the sector asking Musk how his recent acquisition of Twitter would affect false reports. The CEO said once Twitter rolls out its Community Notes feature, it will be easier to identify reports that are not true.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons Musk purchased Twitter was to fight misinformation, a problem that has affected many companies outside of Tesla. However, issues with account impersonation and parodies have inflated due to Twitter’s recent rollout of the Blue subscription feature. The rollout of a new feature that equips a blue checkmark to any account that pays $7.99 per month has incited many impersonation issues, a plague that Musk has vowed to fight with immediate suspensions.
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