Musk ends China visit after visiting Tesla Shanghai plant last night
Musk arrived in Shanghai from Beijing yesterday evening and toured the Tesla Shanghai factory overnight.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk has wrapped up his brief visit to China, where he spent the past two days meeting with several Chinese officials and visiting Tesla's Shanghai factory.
Musk's private jet with registration number N628TS took off from Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport at 11:23 am Thursday and is expected to arrive in Austin, where Tesla is headquartered, in 12 hours and 50 minutes, according to flight-tracking platform Variflight.
The Tesla CEO arrived in Shanghai from Beijing yesterday evening and toured the Tesla Shanghai factory overnight.
Early this morning, Grace Tao, Tesla's vice president of external affairs, shared two images on Weibo showing Musk with Giga Shanghai employees.
(Images from Grace Tao's Weibo.)
The Weibo was posted at 0:28, while Tao was at the facility, her Weibo location information shows.
Neither Tao nor Tesla disclosed the exact schedule of Musk's activities at Giga Shanghai, though Bloomberg reported that the first cars to roll off the line at the plant on Thursday were prototypes of the updated Model 3 sedan.
Musk arrived in Beijing on May 30 on his private jet, and was later met by Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing.
Tesla opposes decoupling and supply chain disconnection and is willing to continue to expand its business in China and share in China's development opportunities, Musk said, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
On May 31, Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Jin Zhuanglong met with Musk in Beijing, where the two sides exchanged views on topics including the development of new energy vehicles (NEVs) and smart connected vehicles, according to an announcement from the MIIT.
Musk then visited China's Ministry of Commerce and was met by Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.
In addition to the meeting with Chinese officials, Musk was seen meeting with Robin Zeng, chairman of CATL, the world's largest power battery manufacturer, on May 30.
A picture circulating on Chinese social networks shows Musk and Zeng together in the lobby of a hotel.
Musk meets with more officials as he begins 2nd day of China visit