Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares fell 2.5% in Friday’s trade after China banned its vehicles from entering its military complexes on concerns about the cameras they carry.
As per a Bloomberg report, the order issued by the military advises Tesla owners to park their cars outside of military property.
In a report on the same lines, The Wall Street Journal reported that China's government was restricting the use of the company's cars by personnel at military, state-owned enterprises in sensitive industries and key agencies, as they could be a source of national security leaks.
Tesla cars have several small cameras externally to assist with parking and self-driving. The company’s Model 3 and Model Y have cameras embedded in the rear view mirror for driver safety.
While the Elon Musk tackles the new headache in China, the cup of challenges for the electric vehicle maker keeps filling up. Reuters on Friday reported that China's Geely Automobile Holdings (OTC:GELYF) Ltd ADR (OTC:GELYY) plans to roll out electric vehicles under a new marquee with different branding and sales strategies.
The brand, positioned in the premium segment and named ‘Zeekr’, will be housed under Geely's to-be-launched EV entity Lingling Technologies, Reuters said.
The Times Thursday reported that Model 3, Tesla’s most popular model in the U.K., will no longer be covered by the country’s subsidy program.
The upper limit of cars eligible for the scheme will be reduced from 50,000 pounds ($70,000) to £35,000 ($49,000), leaving out Model 3 whose prices start at 40,500 pounds.
Before Geely, there have been other signs too of the emerging competition. Volkswagen (OTC:VWAPY) Tuesday said it expects to make 1 million electric vehicles this year, which would put it comfortably ahead of Tesla in volume sales. BMW (OTC:BMWYY) wants half of its group sales to be electric by 2030.