In 2020, Chinese consumers spent more than $6 billion on Teslas, a figure that more than doubled the companyโs 2019 China revenue. But just because the worldโs most notable electric is widely accepted in the Far East doesnโt mean the Chinese government doesnโt take to Tesla with a little caution.
A recent report suggests that the Chinese government has concerns over how Teslas could impact state security, with Bloomberg citing sources who say the vehicles have been banned from military bases.
The Chinese military is said to be uneasy over the potential for a Teslaโs variety of cameras to record classified information. Reports point to Teslaโs dashcam, which can record up to ten minutes, as well as its SentryMode function, which records incidents around the vehicles and is typically used to prevent theft.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Tesla drivers are being forced to park their vehicles offsite from military bases as well as โkey state-owned companies.โ Some are being asked to stop driving their Teslas to work altogether.
Elon Musk has responded to the reports, saying, basically, that the risk of spying on China via Teslas would be a very, very stupid business mistake and that for any company that engaged in such behavior: โThe negative effects for that company would be extremely bad".
Musk added, "There's a very strong incentive for us to be very confidential with any information," and โif Tesla used cars to spy in China or anywhere, we will get shut down."
The reports come at a tense time between China and the US, and some are even speculating the allegations from China are retaliatory ones as the US has, on several occasions, wrangled with Chinese companies over what they considered to be security threats.