Tesla builds first factory outside United States in Shanghai
A looming trade war with China hasn't slowed down Elon Musk or his beloved brainchild Tesla.
Right after the car company was forced to raise the prices of its cars by at least $20,000 each due to China's increased import tariffs on American-made cars, Tesla announced it would open its first international factory in Shanghai.
This will ultimately allow the car manufacturer to circumvent the newly imposed taxes once completed.
Musk was in Shanghai on Tuesday attending a government event — although he did not previously disclose why he was there. Now, it's safe to say that at least part of the reason was that he was announcing this new factory.
A Tesla spokesperson told Mashable that the deal was signed today, which follows up on the company's talks last year with the Shanghai Municipal Government to possibly establish a factory in the region.
"Today, we have signed a Cooperative Agreement for Tesla to start building Gigafactory 3, a new electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Shanghai," a Tesla spokesperson told Mashable in a statement.
"We expect construction to begin in the near future, after we get all the necessary approvals and permits. From there, it will take roughly two years until we start producing vehicles and then another two to three years before the factory is fully ramped up to produce around 500,000 vehicles per year for Chinese customers."
The spokesperson said that the new factory — the largest foreign-invested manufacturing project in Shanghai — will not impact Tesla's manufacturing operations in the United States, which should continue to grow.
"It will be a state-of-the-art vehicle factory and a role model for sustainability," Elon Musk said in the statement released by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government.
"We hope it will be completed very soon. We’ve been impressed by the beauty and energy of Shanghai and we want our factory to add to that."
This new facility will hopefully help Tesla meet its manufacturing goals in the years to come.
