Autobayng News Team
Once the undisputed EV pioneer, Tesla has now been overtaken by BYD. Musk also said China is poised to lead the world in AI compute and the country’s electricity advantage could give it an edge in scaling AI systems.
From producing massive output battery plants to manufacturing electric vehicles to solar plants, tech billionaire Elon Musk has heaped praises on China during a candid conversation on a podcast. Speaking on the Moonshots podcast to discuss energy usage and data centers, Musk jokingly said that China does everything he says. Musk, the world’s richest man, said that he feels China listens to everything he says and does basically so or they are just doing it independently.Discussing energy usage of data centres and reliance on batteries to meet power needs, Musk said “It seems like China listens to everything I say, and does it basically or they’re just doing it independently.” “I don’t know, but they certainly have a massive battery pack output, they’re making a vast number of electric cars, and vast amounts of solar,” he stated, adding “These are all the things I said we should do here”.The remarks of Elon Musk came after year-by-year sales data showed that China’s BYD overtook Elon Musk’s Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric vehicles (EVs), marking the first time it has outpaced its American rival in annual sales. Tesla car sales dropped by nearly 9 per cent in 2025 to 1.64 million vehicles sold worldwide, the carmaker said last week. Musk praised the way China is making electric cars and huge number of solar plants, manufacturing high capacity batteries adding all these are things that he used to say that should be done in United States.
Elon Musk praises China
The comments of tech mogul highlights China’s growing dominance in scaling electric vehicles, batteries and solar power. The data shows China produced 13 million EVs in 2024 with 70 per cent year-over-year growth since 2020, capturing 69 per cent of the global EV battery market via leaders like CATL and BYD, reports Times of India. Chinese firms such as Geely, MG, and BYD are now now the country’s largest electric car company.Speaking about how to approach power generation in an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging fast, Elon Musk feels that the best way to increase or boost energy output per year of the United States or any other country is batteries. “The best way to actually increase the energy output per year of the United States or any country is batteries.” Peak power output of the US is around 1.1 terawatts, but the average power usage is only half a terowatt. So if you just buffer the energy, charge up the batteries at night, discharge during the day without incremental capital expenditures, without building new power plants, you can double the energy throughput of the US,” Elon Musk said.When asked whether such batteries are under development, Elon Musk responded in affirmative saying “yeah, Tesla makes them” such as Megapacks. Megapacks are utility scale reliable energy storage that can be used as an alternative source for energy and be useful to stabilise the grid and prevent outages. According to some reports, Musk’s company xAI has so far deployed 168 Megapacks to source its data center in South Memphis, Tennessee.
Notably, Musk has repeatedly used X (formerly Twitter) to advocate greater reliance on solar energy for power generation. In 2024, he cautioned that China’s solar capacity is growing at such a rapid pace that it could exceed the total electricity output of the United States within a span of four years.
China to lead the world in AI compute, says Musk
During the same podcast, Elon Musk said China is poised to lead the world in AI compute, adding that the country is on track to outpace every other country in the computing power needed to run AI. “China’s going to have more power than anyone else and probably will have more chips. Based on current trends, China will far exceed the rest of the world in AI compute,” he added.
Musk said China’s decisive advantage in the AI race lies in its ability to scale electricity generation. He estimated that China could reach about three times the electricity output of the US by 2026, giving it the capacity to support energy-hungry AI data centers. Electricity generation is the limiting factor to scaling AI systems, Musk said. “People are underestimating the difficulty of bringing electricity online,” he added.
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