michael jackson dangerous tour germany

Dangerous World Tour: 1992 – 1993

The Dangerous Tour started on June 27th 1992 and ended on November 11th 1993. It consisted of 69 concerts and was seen by approximately 3.5 million people. All proceeds from the tour were donated to various charities, including Michael’s Heal The World Foundation. The tour was unfortunately cut short due to health reasons.

The tour had a spectacular ending, with what looked like Michael putting on a jet pack and flying over the audiences’ head and out of the stadium’.

Set List – 1st Leg:

• Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
• Human Nature
• Smooth Criminal
• I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
• She’s Out Of My Life
• Jackson 5 Medley
• Billie Jean
• Workin’ Day And Night
• Will You Be There
• The Way You Make Me Feel
• Black Or White
• Heal The World
• Man In The Mirror

Set List – 2nd Leg:

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Dangerous World Tour

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The Dangerous World Tour is the second worldwide concert tour by Michael Jackson . It was launched in support of the artist's eighth studio album, Dangerous (1991) and lasted from June 27, 1992 until November 11, 1993. The shows were sponsored by Pepsi .

The tour grossed a little less than its predecessor, Bad World Tour , gaining over $100 million. All profits were donated to charities including Heal the World Foundation . As it was nearing its end, the Dangerous World Tour was unfortunately cancelled due to Jackson's declining health. The tour was originally going to end on Christmas 1993.

• 1 Background
• 4.1 Cancelled dates
• 5.1 Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour
• 6.1 Lead performer
• 6.2 Dancers
• 6.3 Musicians
• 6.4 Vocalists
• 9 References

Background [ ]

During the final show of the Bad World Tour in 1989, Jackson stated it was going to be the final time the world would see him on stage. This was initially the plan for his career going forward, as Michael later explained, concerts were exhausting and he went through "hell" touring. Additionally, the artist wanted to focus on making music and filmmaking instead.

On February 3, 1992 Michael held a press conference at Radio City Music Hall in New York, where the Dangerous World Tour would be announced. Michael explained, that the sole reason he'd do the tour was to raise funds for the Heal the World Fundation. The goal was to gain $100 million by Christmas of the following year; a goal the artist succeeded with.

As the tour was nearing its end, in 1993 Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by Evan Chandler. This caused Michael to begin taking drugs to ease his mind, but caused his physical health to worsen. On November 11, Michael played in Mexico, which would unfortunately become the final show of the tour, as the rest of it would be cancelled so the artist can focus on improving his health.

Outfits [ ]

For the tour, Jackson rocked a couple different outfits. These were designed by Michael Bush and Dennis Tompkins .

He wore two different, military-like outfits; first was blue and glittery with a golden stripe crossing over the top, while another version was colored in black, and with two golden stripes. Another outfit was completely different from the above; featuring a completely golden top, and black pants. A fourth outfit featured Jackson with a golden, glittery top and two black striped crossing over it, and blue pants.

Setlist [ ]

• "Brace Yourself" (intro)
• " Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' "
• " Human Nature "
• " Smooth Criminal "
• " I Just Can't Stop Loving You " (with Siedah Garrett )
• " She's Out of My Life "
• Jackson 5 Medley
• " Thriller "
• " Billie Jean "
• "Black or White Panther" (video interlude)
• " Workin' Day and Night "
• " Beat It "
• " Someone Put Your Hand Out " (instrumental interlude)
• " Will You Be There "
• " The Way You Make Me Feel "
• " Black or White "
• " We Are the World " (video interlude)
• " Heal the World "
• " Dangerous "

Tour dates [ ]

Cancelled dates [ ], broadcasts & recordings [ ], live in bucharest: the dangerous tour [ ].

On November 16, 2005, a little over a decade after the show took place, a DVD of the October 1, 1992 show at the Bucharest National Stadium was released as a part of The Ultimate Collection , and saw its separate release as Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour on July 25, 2005.

While all of the tour was professionally filmed, the Bucharest concert was the only broadcasted show of the Dangerous World Tour. However, amateur recordings of other shows have been shared online for years.

Personnel [ ]

Lead performer [ ].

• Michael Jackson

Dancers [ ]

• LaVelle Smith (choreographer)
• Dominic Lucero (asst. choreographer; 1992 leg)
• Jamie King (1992 and 1993 legs)
• Eddie Garcia (1992 leg)
• Randy Allaire (1992 leg)
• Travis Payne (1993 leg)
• Jason Yribar (1993 leg)
• Bruno "Taco" Falcon (asst. choreographer; 1992 and 1993 legs)
• Michelle Berube
• Yuko Sumida
• Damon Navandi

Musicians [ ]

• Musical director: Greg Phillinganes (1992), Brad Buxer (1993)
• Assistant musical director: Kevin Dorsey
• Keyboards, synthesizers: Greg Phillinganes (1992); Brad Buxer, Isaiah Sanders (1993)
• Drums: Ricky Lawson
• Lead/rhythm guitar: Jennifer Batten (1992), Becky Barksdale (1993), David Williams
• Bass guitar, synth bass: Don Boyette

Vocalists [ ]

• Vocal director: Kevin Dorsey
• Background vocals: Darryl Phinnessee, Dorian Holley, Siedah Garrett , Kevin Dorsey
• Slash – lead guitar on " Black or White " in Oviedo (September 21, 1992) and Tokyo (December 30 and 31, 1992)

Gallery [ ]

• After the Oslo, Norway concert, " The Way You Make Me Feel " and " Bad " weren't performed for the rest of the tour, although the songs did return for the first 4 concerts in Tokyo. This also became the final performance of "Bad" Jackson ever gave.
• " Workin' Day And Night " and " Beat It " were taken out of the setlist in the third leg. The cherry picker that was used for "Beat It" in the first and second legs was then used for " Black or White " in some concerts in the third leg.
• " Rock with You " and " Remember The Time " were taken out of the setlist due to wardrobe malfunctions.
• Rehearsals for the tour have taken place in Jackson's Neverland home and at Culver City Studios. Footage of the rehearsals can be found on YouTube. [1] [2]
• The " We Are the World " interlude in the 1993 shows was extended, starting with the band and the backup singers singing along with the crowd.
• In some early 1992 shows " Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' " and "Beat It" were performed in their original key.
• Diana Ross was in the attendance on the Oslo show on July 15th 1992.
• Elizabeth Taylor was in the attendance on the Stockholm show on July 17th 1992.
• " Man in the Mirror " was taken out of the setlist of 1993, but was performed in Argentina (first and second night, on the third he had a headache and didn't perform it. He had added it due to the Argentinian audience's warmth according to what their people had told us), it was also performed at the last concert in Mexico. Contrary to popular belief, "Man in the Mirror" was not performed on any night in Brazil or Israel. It is believed by the words of the public that "Man in the Mirror" was also performed during the concert in Chile.
• During " Heal the World " in Bangkok, Michael wore the white shirt from "Man in the Mirror".
• The magic trick at the end of " Thriller " was not performed at the third leg and at select first leg shows.
• Michael cut his finger during the performance of " Jam " in the Copenhagen show, prompting Michael Bush to put a bandage on Michael's finger during " Human Nature ".
• The silver jacket that Michael wore during "Jam" in the 1992 shows (except for Munich and 7 Tokyo shows), was used for the Jackson 5 medley in the 1993 shows. It was confirmed thanks to a photograph that it was used in Tokyo (December 24).
• The original black jacket of "Jam" was only used in Munich and in possibly 7 concerts in Tokyo 1992. This jacket has 3 other versions. One of these was used in the 1993 Superbowl . Another version was used only in the first concert of 1993. And the final version was used during the rest of 1993, during the photo session of the album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I in 1994, the Royal Concert 1996, and it was last used for Michael's scan for a video game in 1999.
• " Will You Be There " had 3 different endings during the tour: in one Michael would be joined by a female dancer in a angel costume (similar to MTV 10th Anniversary performance in 1991); in another one Michael would be joined by a girl who would do sign language and in the final one he would finish the song alone.

References [ ]

• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC_cWKW3EOc&pp=ygUZZGFuZ2Vyb3VzIHRvdXIgcmVoZWFyc2Fscw%3D%3D
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DPeBxSE6BI&t=11049s&pp=ygUZZGFuZ2Vyb3VzIHRvdXIgcmVoZWFyc2Fscw%3D%3D
• 1 List of unreleased songs
• 2 Bigi Jackson
• 3 Michael Jackson

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• August 10, 1992 Setlist

Michael Jackson Setlist at Volksparkstadion, Hamburg, Germany

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Tour: Dangerous World Tour Tour statistics Add setlist

• Part 1 (Following Carmina Burana "Brace Yourself" introduction)
• Jam Play Video
• Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' Play Video
• Human Nature Play Video
• Smooth Criminal Play Video
• I Just Can't Stop Loving You (with Siedah Garrett ) Play Video
• She's Out of My Life Play Video
• I Want You Back / The Love You Save / I'll Be There ( The Jacksons  song) Play Video
• Thriller Play Video
• Billie Jean Play Video
• Part 2 (Following Black or White "Panther" interlude)
• Working Day and Night Play Video
• Beat It Play Video
• Someone Put Your Hand Out Play Video
• Will You Be There Play Video
• Black or White Play Video
• Part 3 (Following "We Are The World" interlude)
• Heal the World Play Video
• Man in the Mirror Play Video

Edits and Comments

15 activities (last edit by event_monkey , 12 Mar 2023, 05:31 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Billie Jean
• Human Nature
• Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
• Black or White
• Heal the World
• Will You Be There
• I Just Can't Stop Loving You
• Man in the Mirror
• Smooth Criminal
• She's Out of My Life
• Working Day and Night
• Someone Put Your Hand Out
• I Want You Back / The Love You Save / I'll Be There by The Jacksons

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• Aug 08 1992 Weserstadion Bremen, Germany Add time Add time
• Aug 09 1992 Volksparkstadion Hamburg, Germany Add time Add time
• Aug 10 1992 Volksparkstadion This Setlist Hamburg, Germany Add time Add time
• Aug 11 1992 Weserberglandstadion Hamelin, Germany Add time Add time
• Aug 14 1992 Glasgow Green Glasgow, Scotland Add time Add time

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Dangerous Tour

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• Start date Mar 10, 2022
• Mar 10, 2022

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How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall

Elon musk’s factory in china saved his company and made him ultrarich. now, it may backfire..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Katrin Bennhold. This is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today, the story of how China gave Tesla a lifeline that saved the company — and how that lifeline has now given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game. My colleague, Mara Hvistendahl, explains.

It’s Tuesday, April 9.

So, Mara, you’ve spent the past four months investigating Elon Musk and his ties to China through his company, Tesla. Tell us why.

Well, a lot of American companies are heavily invested in China, but Tesla’s kind of special. As my colleagues and I started talking to sources, we realized that many people felt that China played a crucial role in rescuing the company at a critical moment when it was on the brink of failure and that China helps account for Tesla’s success, for making it the most valuable car company in the world today, and for making Elon Musk ultra rich.

That’s super intriguing. So maybe take us back to the beginning. When does the story start?

So the story starts in the mid 2010s. Tesla had been this company that had all this hype around it. But —

A lot of people were shocked by Tesla’s earnings report. Not only did they make a lot less money than expected, they’re also making a lot less cars.

Tesla was struggling.

The delivery of the Model 3 has been delayed yet again.

Tesla engineers are saying 40 percent of the parts made at the Fremont factory need reworking.

At the time, they made their cars in Fremont, California, and they were facing production delays.

Tesla is confirming that Cal/OSHA is investigating the company over concerns over workplace safety.

Elon Musk has instituted a kind of famously grueling work culture at the factory, and that did not go over well with California labor law.

The federal government now has four active investigations involving Tesla.

They were clashing with regulators.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate a second crash involving Tesla’s autopilot system.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk — friends are really concerned about him. That’s what Musk told “The New York Times.”

And by 2018, he was having all of these crises.

According to “The Times,” Musk choked up multiple times and struggled to maintain his composure during an hour-long interview about turmoil at his electric car company, Tesla.

So all of this kind of converged to put immense pressure on him to do something.

And where does China come in?

Well, setting up a factory in China, in a way, would solve some of these problems for Musk. Labor costs were lower. Workers couldn’t unionize there. China provided access to this steady supply of cheaper parts. So Elon Musk was set on going to China. But first, Tesla and Musk wanted to change a key policy in China.

Hmm, what kind of policy?

So they wanted China to adopt a policy that was aimed at lowering car emissions. And the idea was that it would be modeled after a similar policy in California that had benefited Tesla there.

OK, so explain what that policy actually did. And how did it benefit Tesla?

So California had this system called the Zero-Emission Vehicle program. And that was designed to encourage companies to make cleaner cars, including electric vehicles. And they did that by setting pollution targets. So companies that made a lot of clean cars got credits. And then companies that failed to meet those targets, that produced too many gas-guzzling cars, would have to buy credits from the cleaner companies.

So California is trying to incentivize companies to make cleaner cars by forcing the traditional carmakers to pay cleaner car makers, which basically means dirtier car makers are effectively subsidizing cleaner cars.

Yes, that’s right. And Tesla, as a company that came along just making EVs, profited immensely from this system. And in its early years, when Tesla was really struggling to stay afloat, the money that it earned from selling credits in California to polluting car companies were absolutely crucial, so much so that the company structured a lot of its lobbying efforts around this system, around preserving these credits. And we talked to a former regulator who said as much.

How much money are we talking about here?

So from 2008, when Tesla unveiled its first car, up until the end of last year, Tesla made almost $4 billion by selling credits in California.

Wow. So Musk basically wants China to recreate this California-style program, which was incredibly lucrative for Tesla, there. And they’re basically holding that up as a condition to their building a factory in China.

Right. And at this point in the story, an interesting alliance emerges. Because it wasn’t just Tesla that wanted this emissions program in China. It was also environmentalists from California who had seen the success of the program up close in their own state.

If you go back to that period, to the early 2010s, I was living in China at the time in Beijing and Shanghai. And it was incredibly polluted. We called it airpocalypse at times. I had my first child in China at that point. And as soon as it was safe to put a baby mask on her, we put a little baby mask on her. There were days where people just would try to avoid going outside because it was so polluted. And some of the pollution was actually wafting across the Pacific Ocean to California.

Wow, so California is experiencing that Chinese air pollution firsthand and, in a way, has a direct stake in lowering it.

That’s right. So Governor Jerry Brown, for example — this became kind of his signature issue, was working with China to clean up the environment, in part by exporting this emission scheme. It was also an era of a lot more US-China cooperation. China was seen as absolutely crucial to combating climate change.

So you had all these groups working to get this California emissions scheme exported to China — and the governor’s office and environmental groups and Tesla. And it worked. In 2017, China did adopt a system that was modeled after California’s.

It’s pretty incredible. So California basically exports its emissions-trading system to China, which I imagine at the time was a big win for Californian environmentalists. But it was also a big win for Tesla.

It was definitely a big win for Tesla. And we know that in just a few years Tesla, made almost $1 billion from the emissions-trading program he helped lobby for in China.

So Elon Musk goes on, builds a factory in China. And he does so in Shanghai, where he builds a close relationship with the top official in the city, who actually is now the number-two official in all of China, Li Qiang.

So according to Chinese state media, Elon Musk actually proposed building the factory in two years, which would be fast. And Li came back and proposed that they do it in one year, which — things go up really quickly in China. But even for China, this is incredibly fast. And they broke ground on the factory in January 2019. And by the end of the year, cars were rolling off the line. So then in January 2020, Musk was able to get up on stage in Shanghai and unveil the first Chinese-made Teslas.

Really want to thank the Tesla team and the government officials that have been really helpful in making this happen.

Next to him on stage is Tesla’s top lobbyist who helped push through some of these changes.

Thank you. Yeah, everybody can tell Elon’s super, super happy today.

[SPEAKING CHINESE]

And she says —

Music, please.

Cue the music. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

And he actually broke into dance. He was so happy, a kind of awkward dance.

[UPBEAT MUSIC]

And what is the factory like?

The Shanghai factory is huge. 20,000 people work there. Tesla’s factories around the world tend to be pretty large, but the Shanghai workers work more shifts. And when Tesla set up in China, Chinese banks ended up offering Tesla $1.5 billion in low-interest loans. They got a preferential tax rate in Shanghai.

This deal was so generous that one auto industry official we talked to said that a government minister had actually lamented that they were giving Tesla too much. And it is an incredibly productive factory. It’s now the flagship export factory for Tesla.

So it opens in late 2019. And that’s, of course, the time when the pandemic hits.

Yes. I mean, you might think that this is really poor timing for Elon Musk. But it didn’t quite turn out that way. In fact, Tesla’s factory in Shanghai was closed for only around two weeks, whereas the factory in Fremont was closed for around two months.

That’s a big difference.

Yes, and it really, really mattered to Elon Musk. If you can think back to 2020, you might recall that he was railing against California politicians for closing his factory. In China, the factory stayed open. Workers were working around the clock. And Elon Musk said on a podcast —

China rocks, in my opinion.

— China rocks.

There’s a lot of smart, hardworking people. And they’re not entitled. They’re not complacent, whereas I see —

We’ve seen a lot of momentum and enthusiasm for electric vehicles, stocks, and Tesla certainly leading the charge.

Tesla’s stock price kept going up.

Tesla has become just the fifth company to reach a trillion-dollar valuation. The massive valuation happened after Tesla’s stock price hit an all-time high of more than $1,000.

So this company that had just a few years earlier been on the brink of failure, looking to China for a lifeline, was suddenly riding high. And —

Tesla is now the most valuable car company in the world. It’s worth more than General Motors, Ford, Fiat, Chrysler.

By the summer, it had become the most valuable car company in the world.

Guess what? Elon Musk is now the world’s richest man.

“Forbes” says he’s worth more than $255 billion.

And Elon Musk’s wealth is tied up in Tesla stock. And in the following year, he became the wealthiest man in the world.

So you have this emission trading system, which we discussed and which, in part, thanks to Tesla, is now established in China. It’s bringing in money to Tesla. And now this Shanghai factory is continuing to produce cars for Tesla in the middle of the pandemic. So China really paid off for Tesla. But what was in it for China?

Well, China wasn’t doing this for charity.

What Chinese leaders really wanted was to turn their fledgling electric vehicle industry into a global powerhouse. And they figured that Tesla was the ticket to get there. And that’s precisely what happened.

We’ll be right back.

So, Mara, you’ve just told us the story of how Elon Musk used China to turn Tesla into the biggest car maker in the world and himself — at one point — into the richest man in the world. Now I want to understand the other side of this story. How did China use Tesla?

Well, Tesla basically became a catfish for China’s EV industry.

A catfish, what do you mean by that?

It’s a term from the business world. And, essentially, it means a super aggressive fish that makes the other fish in the pond swim faster. And by bringing in this super competitive, aggressive foreign company into China, which at that point had these fledgling EV companies, Chinese leaders hoped to spur the upstart Chinese EV makers to up their game.

So you’re saying that at this point, China actually already had a number of smaller EV companies, which many people in the West may not even be aware of, these smaller fish in the pond that you were referring to.

Yes, there were a lot of them. They were often locally based. Like, one would be strong in one city, and one would be strong in another city. And Chinese leaders saw that they needed to become more competitive in order to thrive.

And China had tried for decades to build up this traditional car industry by bringing in foreign companies to set up joint ventures. They had really had their sights set on building a strong car industry, and it didn’t really work. I mean, how many traditional Chinese car company brands can you name?

Exactly none.

Yeah, right. So going back to the aughts and the 2010s, they had this advantage that many Chinese hadn’t yet been hooked on gas-guzzling cars. There were still many people who were buying their first car ever. So officials had all these levers they could pull to try to encourage or try to push people’s behavior in a certain direction.

And their idea was to try to ensure that when people went to buy their first car, it would be an EV — and not just an EV but, hopefully, a Chinese EV. So they did things like — at the time, just a license plate for your car could cost an exorbitant amount of money and be difficult to get. And so they made license plates for electric vehicles free. So there were all these preferential policies that were unveiled to nudge people toward buying EVs.

So that’s fascinating. So China is incentivizing consumers to buy EV cars and incentivizing also the whole industry to get its act together by chucking this big American company in the mix and hoping that it will increase competitiveness. What I’m particularly struck by, Mara, in what you said is the concept of leapfrogging over the conventional combustion engine phase, which took us decades to live through. We’re still living in it, in many ways, in the West.

But listening to you, it sounds a little bit like China wasn’t really thinking about this transition to EVs as an environmental policy. It sounds like they were doing this more from an industrial-policy perspective.

Right. The environment and the horrible era at the time was a factor, but it was a pretty minor factor, according to people who were privy to the policy discussions. The more significant factor was industrial policy and an interest in building up a competitive sphere.

So China now wants to become a leader in the global EV sector, and it wants to use Tesla to get there. What does that actually look like?

Well, you need sophisticated suppliers to make the component parts of electric vehicles. And just by being in China, Tesla helped spur the development of several suppliers. Like, for example, the battery is a crucial piece of any EV.

And Tesla, with a fair amount of encouragement — and also various levers from the Chinese government — became a customer of a battery maker called CATL, a homegrown Chinese battery maker. And they have become very close to Tesla and have even set up a factory near Teslas in Shanghai. And today, with Tesla’s business — and, of course, with the business of some other companies — CATL is the biggest battery maker in the world.

But beyond just stimulating the growth of suppliers, Tesla also made these other fish in the pond swim faster. And the biggest Chinese EV company to come out of that period is one called BYD. It’s short for Build Your Dreams.

We are BYD. You’ve probably never heard of us.

From battery maker to the biggest electric vehicle or EV manufacturer in China.

They’ve got a lot of models. They’ve got a lot of discounts. They’ve got a lot of market growth.

China’s biggest EV maker just overtook Tesla in terms of worldwide sales.

BYD 10, Chinese automobile redefined.

I’ve actually started seeing that brand on the streets here in Europe recently, especially in Germany, where my brother actually used to lease a Tesla and now leases a BYD.

Does he like it?

He does. Although he did, to be fair, say that he misses the luxury of the Tesla, but it just became too expensive, really.

The price point is a huge reason that BYD is increasingly giving Tesla a run for its money. Years ago, back in 2011 —

Although there’s competitors now ramping up. And, as you’re familiar with, BYD, which is also —

— Elon Musk actually mocked their cars.

— electric vehicles, here he is trying to compete. Why do you laugh?

He asked an interviewer —

Have you seen their car?

I have seen their car, yes.

— have you seen their cars? Sort of suggesting, like, they’re no competition for us.

You don’t see them at all as a competitor?

Why is that? I mean, they offer a lower price point.

I don’t think they have a great product. I think their focus is — and rightly should be — on making sure they don’t die in China.

But they have been steadily improving. They’ve been in the EV space for a while, but they really started improving a few years ago, once Tesla came on the scene. That was due to a number of factors, not entirely because of Tesla. But Tesla played a role in helping train up talent in China. One former Tesla employee who worked at the company as they were getting set up in China told me that most of the employees who were at the company at the time now work for Chinese competitors.

So they have really played this important role in the EV ecosystem.

And you mentioned the price advantage. So just for comparison, what does an average BYD sell for compared to a more affordable Tesla car?

So BYD has an ultra-cheap model called the Seagull that sells for around $10,000 now in China, whereas Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys in China sell for more than twice that.

Wow. How’s BYD able to sell EVs at these much lower prices?

Well, the Seagull is really just a simpler car. It has less range than a Tesla. It lacks some safety measures. But BYD has this other crucial advantage, which is that they’re vertically integrated. Like, they control many aspects of the supply chain, up and down the supply chain. When you look at the battery level, they make batteries. But they even own the mines where lithium is mined for the batteries.

And they recently launched a fleet of ships. So they actually operate the boats that are sending their cars to Europe or other parts of the world.

So BYD is basically cutting out the middleman on all these aspects of the supply chain, and that’s how they can undercut other car makers on price.

Yeah. They’ve cut out the middleman, and they’ve cut out the shipping company and almost everything else.

So how is BYD doing now as a company compared to Tesla?

In terms of market cap, they’re still much smaller than Tesla. But, crucially, they overtook Tesla in sales in the last quarter of last year.

Yeah, that was a huge milestone. Tesla still dominates in the European market, which is a very important market for EVs. But BYD is starting to export there. And Europe traditionally is kind of automotive powerhouse, and the companies and government officials there are very, very concerned. I interviewed the French finance minister, and he told me that China has a five - to seven-year head start on Europe when it comes to EVs.

Wow. And what has Elon Musk said about this incredible rise of BYD in recent years? Do you think he anticipated that Tesla’s entry into the Chinese market could end up building up its own competition?

Well, I can’t get inside his head, and he did not respond to our questions. But —

The Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world.

— he has certainly changed his tune. So, remember, he was joking about BYD some years ago.

Yeah, he’s not joking anymore.

I think they will have significant success.

He had dismissed Chinese EV makers. He now appears increasingly concerned about these new competitors —

Frankly, I think if there are not trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world.

— to the point that on an earnings call in January, he all but endorsed the use of trade barriers against them.

They’re extremely good.

I think it’s so interesting, in a way — of course, with perfect hindsight — the kind of maybe complacency or naivete with which he may not have anticipated this turn of events. And in some ways, he’s not alone, right? It speaks to something larger. Like, China, for a long time, was seen as kind of the sweatshop or the manufacturer of the world — or perhaps as an export market for a lot of these Western companies. It certainly wasn’t putting out its own big brand names. It was making stuff for the brand names.

But recently, they have quite a lot of their own brand names. Everybody talks about TikTok. There’s Huawei. There’s WeChat, Lenovo. And now there is BYD. So China is becoming a leader in technology in certain areas. And I think that shift in some ways has happened. And a lot of Western companies — perhaps like Tesla — were kind of late to waking up to that.

Right. Tesla is looking fragile now. Their stock price dropped 30 percent in the first quarter of this year. And to a large degree, that is because of the threat of companies like BYD from China and the perception that Tesla’s position as number one in the market is no longer guaranteed.

So, Mara, all this raises a much bigger question for me, which is, who is going to own the future of EVs? And based on everything you’ve said so far, it seems like China owns the future of EVs. Is that right?

Well, possibly, but the jury is still out. Tesla is still far bigger for now. But there is this increasing fear that China owns the future of EVs. If you look at the US, there are already 25 percent tariffs on EVs from China. There’s talk of increasing them. The Commerce Department recently launched an investigation into data collection by electric vehicles from China.

So all of these factors are creating uncertainty around what could happen. And the European Union may also add new tariffs against Chinese-made cars. And China is an economic rival and a security rival and, in many ways, our main adversary. So this whole issue is intertwined with national security. And Tesla is really in the middle of it.

Right. So the sort of new Cold War that people are talking about between the US and China is, in a sense, the backdrop to this story. But on one level, what we’ve been talking about, it’s really a corporate story, an economic story that has this geopolitical backdrop. But it’s also very much an environmental story. So, regardless of how Elon Musk and Tesla fare in the end, is BYD’s rise and its ability to create high-quality and — perhaps more importantly — affordable EVs ultimately a good thing for the world?

If I think back on those years I spent living in Shanghai and Beijing when it was extremely polluted and there were days when you couldn’t go outside — I don’t think anyone wants to go back to that.

So it’s clear that EVs are the future and that they’re crucial to the green energy transition that we have to make. How exactly we get there is still unclear. But what is true is that China did just make that transition easier.

Mara, thank you so much.

Thank you, Katrin.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

[CROWD CHEERING]

Millions of people across North America were waiting for their turn to experience a rare event on Monday. From Mexico —

Cuatro, tres, dos, uno.

— to Texas.

Awesome, just awesome.

We can see the corona really well. Oh, you can see —

[BACKGROUND CHATTER]

Oh, and we are falling into darkness right now. What an incredible sensation. And you are hearing and seeing the crowd of 15,000 gathered here in south Illinois.

Including “Daily” producers in New York.

It’s like the sky is almost —

— like a deep blue under the clouds.

Wait, look. It’s just —

Oh my god. The sun is disappearing. And it’s gone. Oh. Whoa.

All the way up to Canada.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I’m talking about.

The moon glided in front of the sun and obscured it entirely in a total solar eclipse, momentarily plunging the day into darkness.

It’s super exciting. It’s so amazing to see science in action like this.

Today’s episode was produced by Rikki Novetsky and Mooj Zadie with help from Rachelle Bonja. It was edited by Lisa Chow with help from Alexandra Leigh Young, fact checked by Susan Lee, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Diane Wong, Elisheba Ittoop, and Sophia Lanman and was engineered by Chris Wood.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m catching Katrin Bennhold. See you tomorrow.

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• April 9, 2024   •   30:48 How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall
• April 8, 2024   •   30:28 The Eclipse Chaser
• April 7, 2024 The Sunday Read: ‘What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living’
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• April 4, 2024   •   32:37 Israel’s Deadly Airstrike on the World Central Kitchen
• April 3, 2024   •   27:42 The Accidental Tax Cutter in Chief
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• April 1, 2024   •   36:14 Ronna McDaniel, TV News and the Trump Problem
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Hosted by Katrin Bennhold

Featuring Mara Hvistendahl

Produced by Rikki Novetsky and Mooj Zadie

With Rachelle Bonja

Edited by Lisa Chow and Alexandra Leigh Young

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Diane Wong ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Sophia Lanman

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

When Elon Musk set up Tesla’s factory in China, he made a bet that brought him cheap parts and capable workers — a bet that made him ultrarich and saved his company.

Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains why, now, that lifeline may have given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game.

On today’s episode

Mara Hvistendahl , an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

A pivot to China saved Elon Musk. It also bound him to Beijing .

Mr. Musk helped create the Chinese electric vehicle industry. But he is now facing challenges there as well as scrutiny in the West over his reliance on China.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Fact-checking by Susan Lee .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Katrin Bennhold is the Berlin bureau chief. A former Nieman fellow at Harvard University, she previously reported from London and Paris, covering a range of topics from the rise of populism to gender. More about Katrin Bennhold

Mara Hvistendahl is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on Asia. More about Mara Hvistendahl

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