Enlarge image
Tesla cars not wanted:
China is one of Tesla's largest markets and production bases
Photo: MIKE BLAKE/ REUTERS
Tesla cars will be banned from entering China's coastal Beidaihe district for at least two months from July 1.
This was announced by an official from the local traffic police.
In the coastal town east of Beijing, the Communist Party holds an annual leadership meeting, where personnel decisions and political ideas are discussed behind closed doors.
China usually does not officially announce the dates for the meeting.
The Beidaihe authorities' decision comes just weeks after Tesla vehicles were banned from driving on some streets in downtown Chengdu.
The background here was a visit by Chinese President
Xi Jinping
(69) to the city.
Videos of Tesla cars being diverted from certain areas by police have been posted on social media.
However, the restrictions were never officially announced.
Data from cameras is saved
The Chinese military banned Tesla drivers from entering its complexes last year, citing security concerns about the cameras on the vehicles.
Elon Musk
(50) said at the time that Tesla vehicles would not spy with the cameras in China or anywhere else.
A few months later, however, he admitted that all data generated by cars in China is also stored in the country.
Car manufacturers are increasingly equipping vehicles with cameras and sensors that record images of the vehicle's surroundings.
Controlling how these images are used and where they are sent and stored is a rapidly evolving challenge for industry and regulators around the world.
Tesla cars have multiple external cameras to assist drivers with parking, lane changes, and other functions.
China is one of Tesla's largest markets and manufacturing bases, where the company manufactures the Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for domestic sale and export from its factory in the country's economic heart, Shanghai.
Tesla's Shanghai plant manufactured about half of the 936,000 vehicles the US automaker shipped worldwide last year.
However, this year the factory has been hampered by the corona-related lockdown in Shanghai.
The plant had to close for 22 days.
sio/Reuters