Elon Musk once laughed at this Chinese carmaker. He isn't laughing now
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been vocal about his admiration for the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers. Also, Musk has made it no secret that he admires the work ethic in China, especially after Tesla opened its Giga Shanghai factory in the country in late 2019. However, when it comes to the competitiveness of the Chinese EV makers against his own company Tesla, Musk remained snobbish.
Back in 2011, when Elon Musk was asked about his thought on Chinese automaker BYD and its ability to challenge Tesla during an interview, he burst out laughing. However, what he thinks now, after 12 years of that interview, is completely different. Musk believes that BYD's cars are now highly competitive, as he has written in one of his tweets.
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This is not the first time Elon Musk has expressed his admiration for Chinese car manufacturers. In January this year, Musk was asked to name Tesla's toughest competitor. The Tesla CEO referred to some Chinese companies but didn't provide a specific name. "They work the hardest, and they work the smartest. And so if I were to guess, probably some company out of China is the most likely to be second to Tesla," Musk said. Although he did;t name any company but probably was referring to the brands like BYD, Nio and Xpeng, some of the prominent EV manufacturers from China.
A Twitter user recently posted the old 2011 interview video and tagged Elon Musk, where the Tesla CEO replied, “That was many years ago. Their cars are highly competitive these days." Musk clarified that a lot of things have changed since then, and the BYD cars are now very impressive.
Musk's comment comes at a time when BYD and other Chinese electric car manufacturers are being seen as threats to the legacy automakers. Besides grabbing a large chunk of the Chinese domestic market, BYD is also expanding its market presence rapidly across the world. In fact, the automaker has already launched two electric cars in India as well. BYD became the first Chinese carmaker in India to launch an electric car E6 MPV. Later, the company introduced the Atto 3 EV as well. Now, the automaker is working on its third product for the Indian market, which is the Seal electric sedan.
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