The too electric air between China and Taiwan worries Tesla
Elon Musk's electric cars could end up overwhelmed by geopolitical tensions in Asia. And so Tesla asks Japanese and Korean suppliers to provide plan Bs with respect to their supply chains that pass through China and Taiwan
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated to the world ( especially to the French of Renault, one of the companies most exposed to Moscow, but Stellantis also had to lick its wounds ) that the global automotive supply chain does have its merits in peacetime, when it allows entrepreneurs to locate where labor costs less, but has significant disadvantages whenever geopolitical tensions increase. In the days in which China militarily surrounds Taiwan by sending four Chinese coast guard ships into the "restricted waters" of two Taiwanese islands (the eighth similar incident in the month, reported from Taipei), Tesla owner Elon Musk has put pen to paper to ask suppliers to find alternatives in their supply chain.
ALL THE GEOPOLITICAL FRICTIONS THAT AGIT MUSK
According to what the Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports, which has heard from people who work within the Texan company's supply chain, Tesla is requesting its technology suppliers (printed circuits, displays and electronic control systems) and in particular those located in that area of the world (for example the Japanese companies, potential sources of the tip received by the Japanese newspaper) to start producing components outside the borders of China and Taiwan starting from next year.
FOR TESLA, CHINA IS NO LONGER SO CLOSE (DUE TO TAIWAN AND THE USA)
A real about-face compared to what Musk's recent trip to China seemed to envisage, motivated not only by China's growing imperialist territorial ambitions (commentators point out that the letter was written and sent before the latest maneuvers on the borders with Taiwan, however it is still true that they are not the first of the year and the tension between the two countries has progressively risen in recent years), but also and above all by the duties imposed by American President Joe Biden against Chinese technology.
THE PRECEDENT THAT HAS ESPECIALLY AFFECTED BMW
If we add to all this the recent administrative incident in which some European car manufacturers exporting to the United States (the German Porsche, BMW and Audi and the British Bentley ) have encountered thousands of models that fitted components Chinese banned in the States, it is clear that the risk for those who have exclusively commercial relations with China is becoming increasingly greater.
And it could grow further after the US elections in November. The world that is being shaped, once again divided into blocks, no longer favors globalization as it had done up until now and entrepreneurs must take action by shortening their production lines where possible.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/tesla-cina-taiwan/ on Sun, 02 Jun 2024 15:28:03 +0000.