Thursday newspaper round-up: Tesla, HSBC exec, Chinese imports

Elon Musk, head of Tesla Motors, has sketched out a lofty and futuristic vision for his electric car company, as he sought to regain the initiative after recent setbacks to some of his most ambitious plans. Writing on his company’s blog, Mr Musk on Wednesday laid out what he described as an update to the Tesla “master plan” he first published 10 years ago. It will involve Tesla expanding to make a full range of electric cars, buses and trucks, as well as a smartphone app through which Tesla owners will one day earn money by renting out their self-driving cars. – Financial Times

A British HSBC executive has been released on $1m bail after being charged with fraud linked to a giant $3.5bn currency trade after he was arrested by FBI agents at JFK airport. Mark Johnson, HSBC’s head of FX and commodities for the Americas, was arrested by Federal agents at the New York airport on Tuesday evening, in what marks a major escalation of the US Department of Justice's long-running investigation into foreign exchange trading at global banks. - Telegraph

Whether the Government does enough to support Britain’s defence companies in selling weapons abroad is coming under scrutiny from MPs. The Committee on Arms Exports Controls has launched an inquiry into the state’s role in backing Britain's £24bn a year arms industry, which exports about £8bn of weapons a year on average. – Telegraph

The EU executive has vowed to toughen up Europe’s trade defences in a bid to prevent industry from being overwhelmed by artificially cheap Chinese imports. The European commission promised “faster and firmer” action against foreign producers flooding world markets with subsidised goods, dashing China’s hopes of gaining “market economy status” under existing trade rules. – Guardian

An Uber driver who says he earned less than the minimum wage has told a tribunal about the “tremendous pressure” he was put under to work long hours and accept jobs, and the “repercussions” he faced from the company if he cancelled a pick-up. James Farrar, a driver with the firm since December 2014, said some months he had earned little more than £5 an hour and that “Uber control me very, very carefully”. – Guardian

European manufacturers of domestic appliances are trying to raise prices for British retailers by up to 10 per cent to compensate for the collapse in the pound in the first clear sign that Brexit will drive up prices on the high street. Leading white-goods wholesalers such as Siemens in Germany and Indesit in Italy are demanding payment in euros, or at the pre-Brexit exchange rate, in what retail sources described as “early skirmishes” after the vote to leave the European Union. – The Times

Surveyors across the country believe that the commercial property market is in the early stages of a downturn in the aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union. A survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), conducted after the EU referendum result, showed a significant drop in confidence and investor demand for commercial real estate. – The Times