Tesla is making a renewed push into the Chinese insurance market with the establishment of a wholly-owned subsidiary with a registered capital of RMB 50 million ($6.92 million) and its China chief Tom Zhu as the legal representative in Beijing on July 30. The new company, called Tesla Insurance Brokerage (China) Co., Ltd., was established on July 30 and the sole shareholder of the new company is Tesla Insurance Services LLC, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise owned by Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan residents. The latter was originally established back in 2020 by Tesla but the US automaker recently removed the registration of the subsidiary in China, according to Chinese corporate data site Tianyancha.

Tesla will still need to gain approval from China’s financial regulators to start selling insurance products in the country after registration of the business is completed, according to an August 1 report by Caixin. In a similar move, rival BYD last May fully acquired Yi’an P&C Insurance Co, a Chinese insurer that completed bankruptcy restructuring in mid-2022, as the EV giant looks to provide customers with lower-cost EV insurance products, which are normally pricier than those for internal combustion engine cars. [Caixin, Tianyancha, in Chinese]

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