China no longer allows Tesla cars to enter military grounds on suspicion of espionage.
Group boss Elon Musk rejects the accusation.
Elon Musk felt compelled to make an unusual statement.
"There is a very strong incentive for us to treat any type of information very confidentially," said Musk on Saturday via video at the Chinese Development Forum in Beijing.
He added, "If Tesla uses its cars to spy in China or elsewhere, we will be shut down."
Teslas are no longer allowed to drive on military terrain
This was preceded by a report in the Wall Street Journal that Chinese military personnel and employees of key companies are no longer allowed to drive Tesla cars.
Reuters also reports that Tesla vehicles are no longer allowed to enter military terrain.
The Chinese leadership is evidently concerned that the information permanently collected by the cameras and sensors could be used for espionage.
This includes not only the camera recordings, but also data such as the trip history or the contact details that are read in from a smartphone connected to the car.
This data, it is feared, could reach the USA via Tesla.
The trigger for the surprising restrictions is also likely to be the tough approach taken by the US towards Chinese companies like Huawei.
Elon Musk wants to ease tension
Elon Musk's speech comes in a situation in which tensions between the US and China are growing, also because US President Joe Biden is adopting a tougher stance towards China.
The conflict emerged openly at a high-level meeting of diplomats from both countries in Alaska.
Elon Musk tries his hand at diplomacy.
“Whether Chinese or US, the negative effects of a company spying, these negative effects would be extremely bad for the company,” the Wall Street Journal quoted by the Tesla boss.
It would be good if China and the US could trust each other more.
China is an important sales market for Tesla
But Elon Musk also has solid economic reasons for his concern.
China is one of Tesla's most important sales markets.
The company sold over 147,000 vehicles there in 2020, also because of the Gigafactory 3 that opened in Shanghai at the end of 2019.
That corresponds to almost 30 percent of the global production of 499,550 cars.
According to the International Energy Agency, China is by far the largest sales market for electric cars.
According to the latest figures, over a million electric cars were sold in the country in 2019.
Worldwide production accordingly amounted to 2.1 million e-cars.
