Tesla shares soar on China reports
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Shares in Tesla have rocketed after media reports suggested China has tentatively approved the rollout of the auto maker's advanced autonomous driving service in the country as it also partners with Chinese tech giant Baidu for mapping and navigation functions.
The numbers: The company's shares soared more than 15% to USD194.05 ($296) in New York in response to the news.
During the fourth quarter of 2023, Tesla’s share of China’s auto market fell to 6.7% from 10.5% during the first quarter.
The context: Elon Musk made a surprise visit to China on Sunday seeking approval for Tesla's "Full-Service Driving" (FSD) software, which could help arrest the carmaker’s revenue decline.
Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, first reported that Tesla had inked the deal with Baidu and that it had also cleared key data security and privacy requirements that would ease Beijing's concerns about security issues.
The data security tests included how a vehicle collected “sensitive personal information” and whether a driver could easily stop a car from collecting data, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement late Sunday.
Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal also later reported, based on anonymous sources, that China had given in-principle approval for Tesla to deploy FSD in the country.
FSD requires constant supervision and does not make Tesla cars autonomous.
The sources: Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal
