Unlocking China’s EV Rise
A New Serial Story by Pandaily’s Founder
Hi there, thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. I’m Kevin Zhou, the founder of Pandaily. Over the past few years, I’ve been working in the background, but today, I’d like to share some of my personal work with you.
Since last year, I’ve been working on a book about the development of China’s electric vehicle industry, tentatively titled Tesla vs. BYD: China’s Decade-Long Journey in the Electric Vehicle Industry.
I’m lucky to have witnessed the entire process of the development of EV in China. Early in my career, I interviewed Elon Musk in 2013 and 2014, when Tesla was looking to enter the Chinese market, and I’ve kept in touch with him over the years.(Occasionally, I send him articles from Pandaily about China’s EV and space industries. Most of the time, he ignores them, but sometimes he responds almost immediately in the middle of the night, which I assume is when he’s battling insomnia). I’ve also interviewed several founders of Chinese electric vehicle companies, as well as many other professionals working in the industry.
Over time, I’ve come to realize that the past decade has been an extraordinary one for China’s EV industry. To many in the West, it may seem like Chinese EV companies suddenly emerged as disruptive forces, with governments scrambling to block them with tariffs. But few truly understand what has unfolded over the past ten years. This inspired me to write the book.
Since I haven’t found a mainstream English publisher (or perhaps they think all Chinese journalists are government propaganda machines), I’ve decided to serialize the book here. I plan to make the first few chapters free, but after that, a subscription will be required to view the remaining chapters. ($5 per month or $50 per year).
I aim to complete the serialization here within 8 to 12 months. If I secure a publisher during this period, the serialization is very likely to be halted, but I will notify you in advance, and annual subscribers can request a partial refund.
I’d greatly appreciate any feedback you may have — feel free to send me an email or iMessage at kevin@pandaily.com.
Today, I’m sharing the introductory part. Let’s go back 10 years…
Prologue: Musk’s Special Delivery Ceremony in China
On the afternoon of April 22, 2014, a slightly chaotic ceremony was held at Beijing Hengtong Business Park to commemorate the delivery of the first Tesla vehicles in China.
Just the day before, Musk had flown into Beijing on a Dassault 900 private jet and checked into the Eton Hotel, located right beneath Tesla’s first store in China. After a quick shower, he headed straight to the Ministry of Science and Technology, where he met with Minister Wan Gang. Wan, a former Audi employee and a strong advocate for new energy vehicles, believed that breakthroughs in this field would play a central role in the next wave of technological innovation.
At that time, Musk was dreaming of entering the world’s largest automobile market. But the reality was not as rosy as his vision. In 2010, China had produced only 7,181 electric vehicles, and for the majority of the Chinese public, EVs were an unfamiliar concept.
During his visit, Musk was eager to learn more about China. He asked his colleagues at Tesla China what apps were commonly used by the Chinese, and someone recommended WeChat. Musk downloaded the app immediately and added several people around him as contacts. Years later, Musk would go on to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, often expressing his admiration for WeChat and his desire to replicate its success.
This ceremony marked Musk’s first public appearance in China. He stood alongside the first eight Tesla owners, surrounded by a large crowd of reporters and fans. Eight Model S cars were lined up in a row, each with a nameplate displaying the owner’s name. The scene appeared somewhat chaotic, with the red ropes separating guests and the audience being breached multiple times. However, Musk seemed to be in high spirits, frequently waving at the crowd.
The delivery ceremony that day ended in some confusion, but it opened the door to a massive industrial transformation. Musk could not have imagined that the Chinese market he had just unlocked would later save both him and Tesla from crises multiple times, ultimately propelling him to become the world’s richest person.
Not only was this moment pivotal for Musk and Tesla, but it also marked the beginning of a new era for the Chinese electric vehicle industry.
One of the eight owners at the ceremony was 33-year-old Li Xiang, the founder of Autohome, an automotive news and services portal. At the ceremony, Li chatted with reporters and remarked that Tesla’s product experience still needed improvement. After an afternoon of testing, Li shared several issues he encountered with the Model S on his public microblog, Weibo. He noted that the car only had two cup holders, which were awkward in size, and that the child seats were not compatible with the rear seats. One year later, Li resigned from Autohome and founded Chehejia, later renamed Li Auto, which would become one of the leading forces in China’s electric vehicle industry.
Another Tesla owner in the group was Yu Yongfu, who at the time was the Chairman and CEO of UC, a leading internet company in China. His friend and partner, He Xiaopeng, the founder of UC, would later step down from the company to establish XPeng Motors.
William Li, the founder and CEO of Bitauto, a Chinese car marketing company, was the tenth Tesla owner in China. He felt there was no need for him to be present at the ceremony. One year later, he founded Nio Motors, another major electric vehicle manufacturer in China.
The host of the ceremony was Grace Tao, a former CCTV (China’s national TV station) reporter, who would later play a crucial role in Tesla’s government relations in China.
This event sparked a wave in China's entrepreneurial circle. A month after the ceremony, a young investor named Cao Yi, from Sequoia China, shared a picture of his new black Model S on WeChat, drawing excitement from Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, who had just received investment from Sequoia China. Zhang commented below: ‘Let’s take it out for a test drive next week.’ Cao Yi then agreed to lend it to Zhang for a day. Few months later, Cao left Sequoia China and founded Source Code Capital, with Zhang as his cornerstone investor. Years later, Source Code would invest in Li Auto.
Not just Tesla, Musk was fast becoming a new icon in China’s tech community. In October 2014, Zhang Yiming visited Silicon Valley and met with Musk at Tesla’s headquarters. This trip solidified Zhang’s determination to build a global company, which would later create TikTok. Years later, TikTok would amass 150 million users in the U.S., leading to fierce competition with Musk’s Twitter, which he later rebranded as X.
Meanwhile, as Tesla was entering the Chinese market, its Chinese counterpart was entering the U.S. In October 2014, BYD, a Chinese company known for its batteries, unveiled its first pure electric bus at the APTA Expo in Houston. Founded in Shenzhen, BYD had long been a mystery to many Americans, except for its high-profile investor, Warren Buffett. Like Tesla, BYD began developing electric vehicles in 2003 and launched its first vehicle in 2008. While Tesla started with high-end models and worked its way down, BYD took the opposite approach, beginning with affordable models and gradually moving upmarket. Eventually, the two companies found themselves competing directly.
Musk had once mocked BYD, famously quipping, “Have you seen their car?” However, over a decade later, Musk’s tone had changed. In response to a resurfaced video of the 2011 interview, Musk admitted that BYD had become a formidable competitor, writing, “Their cars are highly competitive these days.”
Over the past decade, I have been fortunate enough to witness this journey firsthand.
In 2013, I just returned to China from studying in the U.S, I was working for China Entrepreneur magazine and I learned that Musk had plans to enter China, so I tried to guess his email address and sent him a cold email saying, “When China’s greatest companies were still underdogs and struggling in the dark, we were the first to spotlight them. Now it’s your turn.” Musk responded, and I was able to interview him at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California.
In 2014, I accompanied and interviewed Musk during his trip to Beijing for the Tesla delivery ceremony. That year, I also organized a trip for Zhang Yiming, Cao Yi and a group of Chinese young entrepreneurs to visit Silicon Valley and meet Musk at his office in Palo Alto.
Later, I spent three years as a tech journalist in Silicon Valley, covering US tech industry, at a time when U.S.-China tech relations were at their peak. Many American entrepreneurs I interviewed are eager to understand China and are willing to meet with their Chinese counterparts. During that time, I met and interviewed Sam Altman, who was the president of Y Combinator. The following year, he and Musk co-founded OpenAI. (Last year, I interviewed Sam at the APEC Summit in San Francisco, just three days before he was ousted from OpenAI.)
In 2015, CITIC Publishing invited me to translate Bloomberg journalist Ashlee Vance’s Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future into Chinese. The book was titled Silicon Valley’s Iron Man (硅谷钢铁侠）in China. As Tesla entered China, Musk quickly became a popular idol among the public in China.
In 2017, I felt that while Silicon Valley was becoming increasingly interested in China, China was moving beyond its admiration for Silicon Valley. So I returned to China and founded Pandaily, an English-language media site covering Chinese tech. That year, we became the first English outlet to report on XPeng Motors, which had just partnered with Haima Motors to produce their first car.
In 2021, Kingston Chang, Tesla’s first head of China, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 50 during the COVID pandemic in Shanghai. Mr. Chang was naturally optimistic and humorous, with a strong sense of curiosity. He had long served as the GM of Bentley in China and was widely respected in the Chinese automotive circle. In early 2013, he was recruited by Musk to join Tesla. While the Chinese automotive industry was still skeptical and taking a wait-and-see approach toward EVs as a new phenomenon, he was the first to embrace them.
I shared the news with Musk, and he immediately expressed his condolences. That was also the moment when I first had the idea of writing a book about China’s electric vehicle industry.
In 2023, I started conducting interviews and writing this book, but halfway through, a Chinese publisher contacted me after my interview with Sam Altman, inviting me to write a book about him and OpenAI. I agreed because I realized that China had once again developed an interest in Silicon Valley after the release of ChatGPT.
I completed that book last month, and now I’ve returned to continue writing this one.
The story I want to tell is about globalization in an era of intensifying geopolitical tensions.
In just ten years, rising technology figures from both China and the U.S., supported by vast markets, proactive governments, and ample capital, have disrupted the automotive industry, which was once dominated by Japan and Europe.
In this story, we meet Silicon Valley visionaries, American capital moguls in their 90s, ambitious Chinese government officials, and, most notably, a group of self-made Chinese entrepreneurs. Together, they have played a key role in this grand game, sparking a global revolution in the vehicle industry. Innovation is no longer exclusive to America—it’s happening in China, too.
Lastly, I want to demonstrate that, despite common stereotypes, good journalism can indeed exist in China. As a journalist who has spent the past 12 years covering both China and the U.S., I believe I can tell this story fairly and objectively.
Alright, forgive me for the lengthy self-introduction. Now, let’s embark on this journey, beginning with the story of Tesla before it entered China.
