Sources: Tesla in talks with China to remove restrictions on its EVs

Automobile company Tesla has been in negotiation with the Chinese authorities about the lifting of all restrictions on moving and parking in some sensitive areas in the country, as its electric vehicles, or EVs, passed an authoritative national data inspection in China on Sunday, sources have said.

The move came as Tesla's founder and CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing on Sunday at the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

A source familiar with the matter said that Musk visited to discuss topics including removing restrictions on Tesla EVs in some sensitive areas, such as government agencies, as well as launching the vehicles' full self-driving functions in the country.

Another source confirmed that Musk made the visit mainly because of the data issue, and he would not be staying long in the city. The source said he was not there for the ongoing Auto China show in Beijing, as many people had said.

According to an announcement by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Sunday, Tesla models produced by its Shanghai Gigafactory fully comply with the regulatory requirements of an authoritative national data inspection.

This includes anonymization of external facial information, non-collection of cabin data, internal processing of cabin data, and prominent notification of personal information processing, meaning that Tesla is the only foreign EV maker so far to have passed the test.

Passing such an inspection means that Tesla's data security performance has been recognized by the authorities, helping the company move a step closer to the full removal of restrictions in areas with data protection in China, industry experts said.