Tesla Honors The Historical Silk Road With The Longest Supercharger Route From East To West In China


Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.

Tesla announced on Twitter from its Tesla Greater China account that it has opened the longest Supercharger route from east to west in China. The tweet included a stunning video and the hashtag #TheSilkRoute, which is a nod to China’s historic Silk Road and what the country is doing to modernize the ancient route.

“Across the boundless desert and the isolated Gobi, lay a realm of desolation once unknown to many. Some, with firm belief, embarked on a long journey. They marched fearlessly along the way and opened up a path of exploration. Despite uncertainty and danger, the will to discover was valid as always. Along this trail, thousand years of history fades in the blink of an eye. This time, together with Tesla, let us come alongside the time-honored Hexi Corridor and return to the ancient Silk Road where the West and the East encounters to revive the buried epics, to retrieve the forgotten beauty. Beyond distance and time, unbound by tradition or trends, towards the farther oasis. Embrace all in a pure way with a pure heart.” —Tesla China.

Image courtesy of Tesla.

The Hexi Corridor, also known as the Gansu Corridor, is a historically narrow stretch of plain that is west of the Yellow River’s Ordos Loop and is part of the Northern Silk Road that runs northwest from the western section of the Ordus Loop between Yinchuan and Lanzhou. It was the most important trade route in Northwest China and linked the nation to historic Western regions for both traders and military incursions into Central Asia.

The Silk Road was established during the Han Dynasty era sometime between 206 BC and 220 AD. It expanded to the west and built a trade network with Central Asian countries and connected the empire with Europe. Silk, spices, and jade were traded for glass, gold, and other noble metals. This ancient trading route was an exchange bridge for trade, culture, and religions between China and Western nations.

Image courtesy of Tesla.

China is modernizing the New Silk Road by linking countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa together with a focus on investment for railway, highway, and port construction. The New Silk Road Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the Initiative, defines Belt as the overland routes and Road as the sea routes. Altogether, the project promotes global cooperation and economic development.

Tesla is playing a key role in not only modernizing the New Silk Road, but making it much cleaner by installing 27 Supercharger stations across 5,000 kilometers along the Hexi Corridor. @Ray4Tesla also gave a clue about this back in December.

I touched upon the idea of Tesla installing Superchargers along the entire length of the Silk Road back in December after seeing Ray’s tweet, and I remember thinking that it would be really neat if Tesla was able to do this. Six months later, we are seeing that idea taking form and I am excited to witness it.


Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Advertisement
 
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.

CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

CleanTechnica's Comment Policy


Johnna Crider

Johnna owns less than one share of $TSLA currently and supports Tesla's mission. She also gardens, collects interesting minerals and can be found on TikTok

Johnna Crider has 1996 posts and counting. See all posts by Johnna Crider