Parikh

"The presence of a single predator causes the whole tank of sardines to better themselves. Beijing, it’s often said, wanted Tesla to play the role of the catfish for the EV industry. The theory is partly misleading. It implies that Tesla just *inspires* competitors to do better, but Tesla works intimately with and improves its third-party vendors, who then supply the local EV brands such as BYD. This, of course, is the Apple model, and Parikh—who played a key role in establishing the Shanghai Gigafactory—specifically hired engineers with Apple experience to set the plan into motion. “Working with Tesla is not easy,” Parikh says. “But the mindset of suppliers is ‘We’re going to become very strong if we can adapt.’ It’s just like working with Apple. If they can unlock the scalability, then they can grow with Apple, or grow with Tesla, and become world-class suppliers.”"

"Tesla broke ground on the Shanghai Gigafactory in December 2018; by late 2019 China-made Model 3 vehicles were coming off the production line. Immediately they were a massive hit, and the Tesla Model 3 was China’s bestselling EV in 2020. Chinese consumers “didn’t want to buy anything being manufactured by Chinese brands; they all wanted Tesla,” says Parikh. “As soon as Tesla came, there was a paradigm shift from consumers, and that’s something the Chinese government saw. This was an opportunity to have the entire EV industry in China compete with, and learn from, Tesla.”"