A Tesla logo is seen at a Tesla showroom in Shanghai, China, 7 January 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song
SHANGHAI, June 20 (Reuters) – Tesla (TSLA.O) cars will be banned from entering China’s coastal Beidaihe district, site of a secret annual Summer Party leadership conclave, for at least two months from July 1, a local traffic agency said a police officer told Reuters news agency on Monday.
The Beidaihe authorities’ decision comes just weeks after Tesla vehicles were also banned from driving on some streets in downtown Chengdu in early June, coinciding with a visit to the city by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Beidaihe Traffic Police Brigade official, who declined to give his name, gave no reason for the move but said it was “national affairs”. An announcement will be made shortly, the official said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Beidaihe, a beach resort east of Beijing, traditionally hosts a summer conclave for China’s top leaders, where they discuss personnel decisions and policy ideas behind closed doors. China usually does not officially announce the dates for the meeting.
The Chengdu restrictions on Tesla cars, which have not been officially announced, came to light earlier this month after videos were posted on social media of Tesla cars being diverted from certain areas by police.
Last year, the Chinese military banned Tesla cars from entering its complexes, citing security concerns about the cameras installed on the vehicles, Reuters reported at the time, citing sources who saw the directive.
Musk said at the time that Tesla’s cars weren’t spying in China or anywhere else, and that if they were, the company would be shut down. Months later, Tesla said all data generated by cars it sells in China is stored in the country.
Car manufacturers are increasingly equipping vehicles with cameras and sensors that record images of the vehicle’s surroundings. Controlling how these images are used and where they are sent and stored is a rapidly evolving challenge for industry and regulators around the world.
Tesla cars have multiple external cameras to assist drivers with parking, lane changes, and other functions.
China is one of Tesla’s largest markets and manufacturing bases, where the company manufactures the Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for domestic sale and export from its factory in the country’s economic heart, Shanghai.
Tesla’s Shanghai plant manufactured about half of the 936,000 vehicles the US automaker shipped worldwide last year. However, this year the factory has been hampered by the COVID-related lockdown in Shanghai, which forced the plant to close for a record-breaking 22 days. Continue reading
Reporting by Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh and Kevin Huang; Additional reporting by Martin Pollard; Edited by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman
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