XPeng Executive Welcomes Tesla FSD Entry into China, Says It Will Drive Healthy Competition

On May 24, a vice president of XPeng Motors stated on Weibo that XPeng might be the only Chinese automaker welcoming Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability into the Chinese market. Earlier, on May 21, Tesla’s overseas social media accounts announced that the supervised version of FSD would be available in 10 countries, including China. However, multiple journalistic verifications confirmed that FSD has not yet received approval from Chinese regulators. Tesla’s official customer service responded that the feature remains under regulatory review in China and that online rumors do not constitute official confirmation; any updates will be proactively announced by the company. Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer previously stated during the Q1 earnings call that the company hopes to secure approval for FSD in China by the third quarter of 2024. Currently, Chinese consumers can opt for an intelligent driver-assistance package priced at RMB 64,000, but the full FSD functionality remains unavailable. Both XPeng and Tesla employ a pure vision-based approach for their advanced driver-assistance systems. On May 21, during a media session following the launch of the XPeng GX, Liu Xianming, Head of XPeng’s General AI Center, noted that FSD’s entry into China would foster healthy competition and drive industry progress. He emphasized XPeng’s advantages in local scenario adaptation, accumulation of domestic driving data, and optimization of localized computing power, enabling better handling of China’s complex road conditions. At the same time, he acknowledged Tesla’s strengths in certain technical areas and expressed that mutual advancement through competition is possible. During the 2026 Beijing International Auto Show, He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng Inc., reiterated the company’s goal to fully surpass Tesla’s FSD in the Chinese market with its VLA intelligent driving system by August 2026.