Tesla Secures Land for $2 Billion China Gigafactory

cageymaru

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Electric car manufacturer Tesla has successfully purchased the land for its Shanghai Gigafactory. The 860,000 square meter plot in China cost the company $140.51 million and will be home to a $2 billion factory. The annual output of the factory is estimated at 500,000 electric cars. China has an insatiable desire for new-electric vehicles.

Tesla signed a long-anticipated deal with Shanghai authorities in July to build its first factory outside the United States, which would double the size of its global manufacturing and help lower the pricetag of Tesla cars sold in the world's largest auto market. "Securing this site in Shanghai, Tesla's first Gigafactory outside of the United States, is an important milestone for what will be our next advanced, sustainably developed manufacturing site," Robin Ren, Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales, said in a statement.
 
Ooh, better fetch me some popcorn.

Yeah, a lot of people are gonna get butt-hurt over this.

I would point out that

  • they've been in talks about this for over 4 years (just after the release of the Model S, when Tesla was trying to license the Model S for sale in China),
  • the factory will supply about 20% of China's demand for this type of battery,
  • the batteries are actually Panasonic (and Toshiba) batteries,
  • that almost all of Tesla's rare earths come out of China, making it difficult for Tesla to say that they're going to put their Asian gigafactory in Korea or Thailand,
  • there will also be a battery factory in Europe,
  • and that people who say Elon Musk is moving his production overseas should look at Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York, where Solar City is building one of the largest solar panel factories in the world.

China is on a big push to decrease its dependency on fossil fuels. China will be its own biggest market for a long time.


P.S. <-- Elon Musk fan boy. Love the haircut!
 
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This is what Tesla needs to survive. All in all, its a good move for the company
I disagree. In two years, you'll see a Chinese Fauxsla at 30% cheaper that LOOKS and specs just like a Tesla. Oh, it won't be of the same build quality (maybe), but it'll be what it'll be.
 
I disagree. In two years, you'll see a Chinese Fauxsla at 30% cheaper that LOOKS and specs just like a Tesla. Oh, it won't be of the same build quality (maybe), but it'll be what it'll be.

From what I’ve read Teslas don’t have the greatest quality anyway, so it might actually be an improvement.
 
I disagree. In two years, you'll see a Chinese Fauxsla at 30% cheaper that LOOKS and specs just like a Tesla. Oh, it won't be of the same build quality (maybe), but it'll be what it'll be.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing, but more along the lines of , Better watch out Telsa, your plans and IP are about to be stolen.....
 
I would like to see Donald Trumps face when he heard about this !! :mad::mad:
I doubt he will be mad about it since these cars are meant to be sold in China, not built and sold back to the US. That's where the problem lays.
 
I would like to see Donald Trumps face when he heard about this !! :mad::mad:

Hey it's his Tariff war, Tesla is forced to pay a 60% Tariff on their EVs there now, the only way around it is to accelerate plans for this factory, so they did.

Was gonna happen either way though, the plan was on the roadmap for years, just became much more urgent. Every auto manufacturer on the planet is clamoring to grab a piece of that pie as it's the largest growth market for automobiles by far, not much room for growth in mature markets relatively speaking.

Sucks for Ford too, they're going through mass layoffs right now due to increased steel and aluminum related costs.
 
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Hey it's his Tariff war, Tesla is forced to pay a 60% Tariff on their EVs there now, the only way around it is to accelerate plans for this factory, so they did.

Was gonna happen either way though, the plan was on the roadmap for years, just became much more urgent. Every auto manufacturer on the planet is clamoring to grab a piece of that pie as it's the largest growth market for automobiles by far, not much room for growth in mature markets relatively speaking.

Sucks for Ford too, they're going through mass layoffs right now due to increased steel and aluminum related costs.

This. Let's all remember that GM decided to kill Pontiac in order to keep Buick, because Buick is their biggest brand being built and sold in China.
 
I was going to say pretty much the same thing, but more along the lines of , Better watch out Telsa, your plans and IP are about to be stolen.....
Tesla released their motors and battery designs under an open license years ago. Anybody can get a copy of the plans for free, building them is an entirely different thing.
 
Hey it's his Tariff war, Tesla is forced to pay a 60% Tariff on their EVs there now, the only way around it is to accelerate plans for this factory, so they did.

Was gonna happen either way though, the plan was on the roadmap for years, just became much more urgent. Every auto manufacturer on the planet is clamoring to grab a piece of that pie as it's the largest growth market for automobiles by far, not much room for growth in mature markets relatively speaking.

Sucks for Ford too, they're going through mass layoffs right now due to increased steel and aluminum related costs.

They are doing what they need to to get back on track for their environmental deadlines. The Chinese government made it clear they want 100% of the vehicles sold in China to be all electric by 2020. And in an effort to get off of coal for power they are building a $16 Billion dollar plant to ship LNG from B.C. If they can’t cut their emissions by more than half by 2035 they are going to have another famine and their current leaders survived the 1958 famine and probably have little desire to do so again.
 
And Tesla technology will be stolen for cheap China knock offs in 3...2...1
 
I disagree. In two years, you'll see a Chinese Fauxsla at 30% cheaper that LOOKS and specs just like a Tesla. Oh, it won't be of the same build quality (maybe), but it'll be what it'll be.
These are not stupid people.
They are aware of the possibility and evidently, the reward is greater than the risk.
 
Made in China, No thanks. Tesla, you've just become part of the problem. Not that I would ever buy those pieces of junk anyway.
 
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manufacturing in China comes with the caveat of tech transfer. If it was just plain manufacturing, then there won;t be a fuss.

This is pretty much hands over the innovation competitiveness to China for the license to do business in there.

And with insight of China-2025's macro economic plan, this is bad for everyone non-Chinese.
 
Tesla released their motors and battery designs under an open license years ago. Anybody can get a copy of the plans for free, building them is an entirely different thing.
Yea but I'm sure their IP isn't limited to just motors and Battery tech....
 
Hey it's his Tariff war, Tesla is forced to pay a 60% Tariff on their EVs there now, the only way around it is to accelerate plans for this factory, so they did.

Was gonna happen either way though, the plan was on the roadmap for years, just became much more urgent. Every auto manufacturer on the planet is clamoring to grab a piece of that pie as it's the largest growth market for automobiles by far, not much room for growth in mature markets relatively speaking.

Sucks for Ford too, they're going through mass layoffs right now due to increased steel and aluminum related costs.
Tariffs were in place before Trump took office. They may have escalated because they aren't happy about giving up a good situation.
 
Tariffs were in place before Trump took office. They may have escalated because they aren't happy about giving up a good situation.

That's true, they used to be 15% originally if I recall. Companies were getting around that by building factories in China with majority Chinese co-ownership. They have a strong lead in foreign EV sales and they can't afford to lose that edge at such a critical time.

Could be the pressure turns into a blessing in disguise, who knows.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/02/tes...a-because-of-tariffs-cars-60percent-more.html
China has put an import tariff of 40 percent on Tesla vehicles, compared with 15 percent for other vehicles imported to China.
...
costs 55 percent to 60 percent more to produce its vehicles than "the exact same car" made by Chinese producers.
...
Tesla said it is responding to the heightening tensions and increasing costs by "accelerating construction of our Shanghai factory,"
...
That announcement came days after Tesla said it was raising prices on its vehicles by 20 percent in China to respond to the first round of tariffs.

At the same time China's extremely excited to get Tesla to come in, their officials have done allot of leg work accelerating paperwork and even shopping for attractive funding from local Chinese banks etc.

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-gigafactory-3-loan-agreements-shanghai-banks-report/

Probably a very smart long-term plan they have in mind with that, which can be cool, scary or both.
 
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A country with gross intellcataul property theft and not including human rights or the organ harvesting. I believe it could and will end poorly. China copies it's own innovators with cheap knock offs I see no reason for them to change.
 
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