CATL boss visits Elon Musk's Beijing hotel on Tesla CEO's surprise trip

The chairman of Chinese battery giant CATL Robin Zeng visited Elon Musk's hotel in Beijing on Monday, a day after the Tesla CEO's surprise arrival on a trip expected to involve talks on the rollout of self-driving software.

The chairman of Chinese battery giant CATL Robin Zeng visited Elon Musk's hotel in Beijing on Monday, a day after the Tesla CEO's surprise arrival on a trip expected to involve talks on the rollout of self-driving software. Musk arrived in the Chinese capital on Sunday where he was expected to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and permission to transfer driving data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

He met Chinese Premier Li Qiang and the organizer of the ongoing Beijing auto show shortly after he landed but has yet to disclose details of his other planned meetings. On Monday morning, CATL Chairman Zeng was seen exiting an elevator in the lobby of Musk's hotel, where he was greeted by two top Tesla China executives, Tom Zhu and Grace Tao, a Reuters witness said. Reuters could not immediately confirm with CATL if Zeng met with Musk.

CATL is a key battery supplier to Tesla. Zeng and Musk also met last year for dinner during Musk's last trip to China. Musk said this month that Tesla may make FSD available to customers in China "very soon," in response to a query on X.

The U.S. electric vehicle maker rolled out FSD, the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but has yet to make it available in China, its second-largest market globally, despite customer demand. Equity analysts at Wedbush called the surprise visit "a major moment for Tesla."

Rival Chinese automakers such as Xpeng have been seeking to gain an advantage over Tesla by rolling out similar software. Tesla has since 2021 stored all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai as required by Chinese regulators and has not transferred any back to the United States.

Musk is looking to obtain approval to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its autonomous driving technologies, the person said. Musk's visit to China, first reported by Reuters, was not flagged publicly and the person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with media. Tesla has not responded to requests for comment.

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