When asked to reveal which electric vehicle startups have impressed him the most, Musk first pointed to Volkswagen as a burgeoning competitor to his market-leading Tesla.

Next, he pivoted to China, stating that he expected some “very strong companies” to emerge from the country and provide more competition in the years ahead.

“There’s just a lot of super-talented, hard-working people in China that strongly believe in manufacturing and they won’t just be burning the midnight oil, they’ll be burning the 3 am oil,” Musk told the Financial Times.

“They won’t even leave the factory, type of thing, whereas in America, people are trying to avoid going to work at all,” he added.