Many guesses on how Elon Musk’s close involvement in the new Trump administration could affect the wealth of his vast trade empire. On the one hand, President Trump could facilitate the regulatory environment on Tesla, and transfer even more government contracts to SpaceX. To the reverse, markets seen as favorable to the EV hovering on Tesla.
We now see another potentially adverse side effect as China is considered using Tesla as a pawn in trade negotiations.
Tesla cars sales were flat in 2024, and to maintain his astronomical assessment, Musk bet the entire future of the autonomy car, both in the form of self-driving cars and humanoid robots, seeing them as much more lucrative than the low – Marginal traditional business to sell cars. He now spends most of Tesla’s revenue, who talk about a future in which autonomous fleets of “cyber cables” will wander on the streets and replace human drivers. The company has slowly devised its full self-driving (FSD) technology through an optional add-on for current Tesla owners, with plans to start testing Fully autonomous taxi service In Austin sometime this year.
China is Tesla’s second largest market, yet the country has not allowed it to start autonomous technology there so far. President Trump’s recent move to put 10% rates to goods exported from China has created an opportunity for the country to use the president’s confidante as a leverage. Of the Financial Times:
Chinese authorities are contemplating to use the approval of Tesla’s autonomous-driving license as a negotiating chip in trade negotiations with Trump, said two of the people with knowledge of the delay, adding that this was the main reason for holding a concession of the concession of the permission.
The approval could still come soon, depending on how trade negotiations developed, one of the people added. But another said that some people at the company believed that fast consent was unlikely unless there was a “major advance or concession” in business talks.
In China, competitors like BYD drove before Tesla selling ultra-affordable EVs for the masses, meaning the country does not need it there. President Trump has a useful reason to support Musk – his Super Pac War Chest has helped the president wear power in the GOP attacking illegal politicians, and Musk was the idea behind the Doge war against Dei and government elites that Trump feels always against him .
China does not currently allow Tesla to train while driving images there, and the United States does not allow the company to train in China due to export restrictions. Musk said it was trying to prepare for rolling in the country instead training its AI systems in publicly available videos from Chinese streets it can access from the United States
Musk promised full autonomy, in which passengers do not need to operate a vehicle at all, returning years, and constantly missed their own deadlines. Even now, Musk moves the goals saying that full autonomy will not be available to US drivers this year, but rather they will be able to access a more limited riding service in fixed service areas like Austin. It is important to keep that in mind here. And we don’t even know that Tesla can achieve full autonomy in the first place, regulatory approvals. It did not actually prove the feat scale without a human driver at the wheel as Waymo.
On another front, Musk strangely favored to roll EV -buying incentives in the United States including tax credits, which greatly benefited his company. Cynically, critics think he supports the movement, as Tesla would be less negatively affected than competitors like Rivia, who are still out of profit.
It’s the whole world of Musk, and we just live it. How many of the next four years of political movements will be attributable to his needs?
