Image credit: Daniel Oberhaus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
When the richest person in the world talks about a global superpower in energy terms, we listen. On a recent episode of the Moonshots podcast, Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk dropped a line that instantly lit up business and tech circles. He joked that it feels like China does everything he suggests, implying the Asian superpower’s admiration and respect.
He himself described China’s moves toward batteries, electric cars and solar energy with a mixture of admiration and amazement, saying that “China seems to be listening to everything I say and basically doing it” — or else independently playing the same playbook it has claimed for years. What are the odds?
Far from a throwaway line, Musk’s remark captured a reality that is beginning to reshape the global economy and industrial competition: China’s cleantech growth is real, enormous, and happening fast. It’s no joke, especially when the person making the joke once complained about their rival eating their lunch. Another thing that is no joke is that Musk once laughed at the idea of the Chinese brand BYD as a competitor. Today, BYD has dethroned Tesla as the global king of electric vehicle sales.
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In a 2011 Bloomberg interview, Musk dismissed the idea of BYD as a Tesla rival with laughter and remarked: “Have you seen their car? I don’t think they have a great product. I don’t think it’s particularly attractive.” Since then, that moment has resurfaced repeatedly, especially as BYD has become Tesla’s most formidable rival, surpassing it in global electric vehicle sales.
Musk’s sneering condescension has not aged well as BYD has invested heavily in battery technology, affordable electric vehicles and global expansion over the past decade. By 2024, the Chinese brand has surpassed Tesla in global electric vehicle sales and revenue to solidify its position as the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer.
Meanwhile, Tesla has struggled with declining deliveries, brand perception issues and increasing competition from Chinese automakers. Because of this, the old clip of Musk laughing at BYD keeps resurfacing online, often used to highlight how drastically the electric vehicle market has changed.
At a glance, Musk’s description of China watching its lips sounds almost self-amplifying. Or self-liberated. You can imagine him, relaxed and laughing on a podcast, amazed that a nation of 1.4 billion people could echo his own strategic advice for the United States on sustainable energy. But there is a serious side to this levity. It reflects how China has rapidly expanded its production of batteries, electrified vehicles and solar power — of course, exactly Musk’s long-standing priorities for the global decarbonization effort.
Image credit: BYD.
Just a few years ago, Tesla dominated global headlines as the king of electric vehicles (EVs). Today, this position has a very serious challenger. BYD, China’s largest electric vehicle maker, has surpassed Tesla in annual vehicle sales. That shift hasn’t escaped Musk’s attention (or his comments this week), and it marks a symbolic turning point in the global electric vehicle market, to say the least.
China’s electric vehicle production has grown to about 13 million vehicles in 2024, a staggering 70 percent year-on-year growth. This puts the country in a dominant position in battery production and electric vehicle supply chains, with firms such as CATL and BYD leading the way. Musk essentially admitted that this scale is something even he didn’t foresee so quickly. That was probably because he was laughing at the time.
For readers who picture Tesla and China as friendly rivals, that’s not quite the picture. Musk’s admiration is tinged with the awkward acknowledgment that China could learn from its own public plan for a sustainable future. Whether this is an intended influence or simply a parallel development is something that even he has openly questioned.
Musk’s recent respect extends beyond electric rides on the road to the next frontier: artificial intelligence. In a separate interview, he acknowledged that China is on track to “far surpass the rest of the world” in AI computing capacity. This claim is rooted in China’s huge investment in electrical infrastructure, which Musk says is the real bottleneck to the expansion of powerful AI systems.
Image credit: Josiah True / Shutterstock.
This prediction reverses the typical narrative. For years, the United States has been seen as the leader in AI through Silicon Valley innovation. Musk’s comments suggest that power production, not just chips and talent, will decide the race, and in this area China currently holds a considerable advantage.
What makes Musk’s praise remarkable is not just the praise itself, but the context. China’s rapid rise in technology comes with intense global debate. Some see it as an economic miracle. Others criticize Beijing’s political system or see its industrial policies as threatening Western competitiveness. Musk’s lighthearted line about China doing “everything it says” plays into both narratives: hilarity on the surface with intense strategic subtext underneath.
Some observers argue that Musk’s soft tone toward China may also be partly strategic. Tesla has deep business interests there, including major manufacturing plants and a huge consumer market. Some commentators have even suggested that his upbeat public comments help maintain good business relations despite the growing competition.
