According to the CEO Elon Musk, Tesla is all set for the groundbreaking ceremony of the company’s first non-United States factory in Shanghai, China.
On Monday morning, Elon Musk tweeted that the company is looking forward to breaking the ground on the new Tesla factory in Shanghai. Musk added in the succeeding tweets that this new factory will manufacture Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 vehicles which are going to be for the Greater China region. The company’s plan is to finish the primary construction till this summer and after that Tesla will start the production of Model 3 at the end of the year. The ultimate plan is to reach the high volume production in the next year.
The land for this new factory has been acquired by Tesla on the outskirts of Shanghai in October which costs about $140 million. Tesla is one of the popular luxurious car brands in China but it is facing a rise in competition from other local electric automakers like Nio.
Production of Tesla cars in China itself will help the company to cut costs from ocean transport and tariffs. In one of its reports, Tesla said that it is operating at up to 60 percent cost disadvantage because of tariffs and ocean transport and due to the reason that unlike local Chinese manufacturers, Tesla cannot access the same cash incentives.
According to a government report, the company’s new factory is projected to start partial production of the vehicles in the second half of 2019. Meanwhile, Tesla has set up its official account on Chinese social media platforms like Weibo and WeChat. The company has also listed about the openings for different positions at the new Tesla factory in Shanghai.
The company’s new plant is going to be a significant milestone, as Tesla now enters the world’s largest automobile market.
