But China thinks it has an ace in its back pocket that could help keep Trump’s more robust policies in check: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company depends on good ties with the Asian country.
“Tesla cannot exist without China,” said Cornel Ban, an associate professor at the Copenhagen Business School, who studies electric vehicle investments in China.
I’m not sure that statement is true. I believe Tesla can exist without China. But severing that relationship hurts profits.
“There won’t be a big conflict between the U.S. and China so long as Musk is in the White House,” Ban said.
Musk isn’t the only one who has Trump’s ear, though.
Roughly 1/3 of all Tesla’s are sold in China. Can they exist? Certainly, but the company would probably be worth half as much. I would expect China provides them the greatest amount of sales growth potential.
Maybe. But China also has the main real competition in the field of EVs. They have a 100 EV companies and 95 of them will go bust over the next decade or two, and the remaining 5 will become very strong … they will call them “the big 5”.
