Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a late-night visit to Shanghai Gigafactory Wednesday amid tight schedule during China visit.
Elon Musk’s private jet landed at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 9:26 pm on Wednesday. Three hours later, at 12:28 am on Thursday, Tao Lin, Tesla's global vice president, posted two photos featuring Musk and the Shanghai factory team through her social media Sina Weibo account. Along with the pictures, Tao also shared the text "Thank you for all the support! What a full day!” while geotagging Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory.
Shortly after, Tao also posted a photo of Musk and his employees on her WeChat moments with the text: "Exciting day! May the innocence stay forever, happy Children's Day” as Thursday is the International Children’s Day.
Musk’s visit to China, his first in three years, has attracted much attention and has become a closely watched subject on Chinese social media.
Musk arrived in Beijing on Tuesday and met with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
He met with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Jin Zhuanglong in Beijing on Wednesday, exchanging views on China-US economic and trade cooperation as well as the development of new-energy vehicles (NEVs).
On the same day, Musk also met with Ren Hongbin, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. They exchanged in-depth views on promoting China-US new-energy sector cooperation, boosting exchanges and cooperation between China and US industrial and commercial ties, in addition to China's holding of the first China International Supply Chain Expo in late November.
Even “Elon Musk taking in banquet with 16 dishes on his first night in Beijing” became a trending topic on Chinese social media Sina Weibo.
On the first day of his visit, Tesla's stock priced surged 5 percent at the opening on Tuesday to end the day up 4.14 percent as the capital market stayed bullish on Musk’s China visit. Tesla closed up a modest 1.38 percent on Wednesday.
Tesla has not yet disclosed the details of Musk's on-going trip, but it is expected that Musk's trip may include details on the production of the updated Model 3 at the Shanghai factory, the expansion of the Shanghai Gigafactory, and the upcoming Tesla Shanghai energy storage Gigafactory, as well as pacing the way for the launch of Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology and energy storage products in China.