After last month’s report by Reuters on Tesla’s decision to suspend plans to ship Chinese parts to the US, there seems to be a change of plans for the US auto giant after the recent US-China tariff talks in Geneva, after which both countries decided to roll back tariffs on each other’s goods.
Tesla now plans to start shipping components from China to the US for the production of Cybercab and Semi trucks from the end of this month, say sources. The move comes after de-escalation of the trade war between the two countries after US President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 per cent, prompting a similar action by China.
Now that a truce has been announced and both the US and China agreed to roll back the bulk of tariffs and other countermeasures, things are looking up for the auto-maker’s US plans, which aims to start trial production of the two models in October and mass production in 2026, with the Cybercab to be produced in Texas and Semi in Nevada, Reuters previously reported.
Tesla has been seeking approvals from state governments for a robotaxi service using a fleet of Cybercabs with no steering wheel or control pedals. It unveiled the concept in October and promised to start building the vehicle by 2026 at a price of less than $30,000.
Trump's tariffs, which were meant to boost U.S. manufacturing, hurt his political ally, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has repeatedly voiced his support for free trade and objections to tariffs.
Last month, Musk told analysts on a first-quarter earnings call that he pushed for lower tariffs to Trump but that the decision was ultimately up to the U.S. President.
Tesla hasn’t yet responded to the latest development.
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