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Tesla Motors Inc. plans to press Obama administration officials to talk to Xi Jingping about making it easier for auto makers to do business in China during the Chinese president's visit to the U.S. next month.

The issue has gained urgency for Tesla as several new electric-car startups in the U.S. have emerged with Chinese financial backing. China prohibits foreign car makers from assembling vehicles in that market without a Chinese partner, which can make it much more difficult to operate there.

All the big global car companies, including General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., produce vehicles in China, mostly through joint ventures. Chinese car makers have yet to attempt to assemble vehicles with their brands in the U.S., but Tesla is concerned that they have a much easier road to travel. "The China-owned companies are not expected to sell controlling stakes to American companies and are free from other trade hurdles that we face," Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes said.

"The requirement that Tesla establish a joint venture for local manufacturing and other obstacles to our activities, such as much higher import duties in China compared to the United States, put American car companies at a significant disadvantage," he said.

The White House didn't immediately offer comment.

China is pushing hard for greater electric-vehicle use, and most major cities offer exemptions from high fees and a lottery system that buyers of gasoline-fueled vehicles must endure. Still, Tesla struggled last year in its launch of sales in China, and the recent devaluation of the yuan to the dollar makes it even more difficult to make money importing vehicles from its plant in California.

Meanwhile, new U.S.-based electric-car companies—some with Chinese backing—are expected to develop vehicles for sale in the U.S. and China. They include Faraday Future Inc., Atieva Inc. and Fisker Automotive Inc., as well as Chinese tech firm Leshi Internet & Technology Co. With significant funding but little publicity, they are hiring dozens of engineers from a list of established auto makers that includes Tesla.

Tesla also faces looming competition from some high-profile names, like Audi AG, which is developing an electric sport-utility vehicle, and Apple Inc., which is working on an electric car.

The electric-vehicle market remains tepid, with only a few players selling battery-powered cars in significant volumes despite big improvements in capability and hefty government incentives aimed at juicing EV sales. In recent years, several companies have either fizzled or failed to gain traction, including Los Angeles-based Coda Automotive Inc., Norway's Think Global A/S, Canada's Feel Good Cars Inc., and Aptera Motors

Tesla's early success in the electric-vehicle market has been unique. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company founded by Elon Musk is on track to sell at least 50,000 vehicles in 2015 and plans to launch a sport utility in September and a cheaper model in 2017. While mired in red ink, its model sets the template for smaller ventures, including those with Chinese backing.

Fisker Automotive, which is based in Southern California, has revived its hopes after China's Wanxiang Group Corp. bought the failed hybrid-electric supercar maker out of bankruptcy in 2014. The company has secured a manufacturing facility in Southern California and is planning to re-launch the brand in coming years.

Beijing-based Leshi Internet & Technology, or LeTV, has hired more than 100 engineers in the U.S. from Tesla, Ford and others to build an electric vehicle. Earlier this month, the company unveiled plans for an electric sports car called Le Supercar, slated for sale in China, the U.S. and other markets. The company says it has teams in the U.S. and China working on the car.

Faraday Future, which was started in 2014, has drawn from Tesla's example. Like Tesla, which bears the name of inventor Nikol Tesla, the California-based company is named after scientist Michael Faraday. In addition, Nick Sampson, Faraday's "product architect," was an engineer instrumental in Tesla's development of the Model S.

Mr. Sampson said the company, which aims to sell a car by 2017 carrying a battery bigger than the one powering the Model S, has "very ambitious" goals. "Because of [our] ability, capability and, yes, funding, we are confident we can deliver," Mr. Sampson said in an email.

Tesla officials say they believe LeTV has provided funding for Faraday, though an LeTV spokesman called the suggestion "speculation."

Mr. Sampson declined to specifically comment on a LeTV connection. "While currently California-based, and with definitive future plans to be an American company in all aspects of R&D manufacturing and administration, [Faraday] is nonetheless a global company with a very diverse funding strategy, working directly with organizations not just in the U.S., but Asia and Europe as well," he wrote.

The company said it now has 300 employees.

A Faraday spokesman said the company is hunting for a manufacturing site in Nevada, Louisiana, Georgia or California and aims to secure suppliers for its vehicle. The company has reached out to auto-supply powerhouses like Michigan-based Delphi Automotive PLC, and to Silicon Valley's Nvidia Corp., whose offerings include computing technology for the auto industry.

LeTV and Beijing Automobile Industry Co. announced last year that they had jointly invested in Atieva. The company, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., has been quiet on its business plan; its single-page website says the company is creating "a breakthrough electric car in the heart of Silicon Valley." The site advertises nearly 100 job openings, up sharply in the past few weeks.

Atieva has nearly a dozen former Tesla engineers and other professionals on staff, based on public profiles posted on LinkedIn. Chief Executive Bernard Tse is a former board member and vice president at Tesla. He declined to comment.

Write to Mike Ramsey at michael.ramsey@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 28, 2015 17:05 ET (21:05 GMT)

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