Today is a big day in Tesla history as Gigafactory China’s groundbreaking ceremony was held just a few moments ago as of this writing.
Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong and Tesla CEO Elon Musk attended the auspicious event along with other Tesla executives and Chinese officials (photos and videos below).
Earlier today, Elon Musk announced on Twitter that he is looking forward to breaking ground on the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory, also called Gigafactory 3 and the only Tesla Gigafactory outside the United States as of now.
Tesla aims to build Tesla Model Y and Model 3 vehicles at Gigafactory 3 to fulfill the demand for the Greater Chinese region. Elon Musk also unveiled the Gigafactory China production plans in one of his follow-up tweets as:
Aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high volume production next year.
Shanghai Gigafactory will come into full production swing next year; for now, the groundbreaking has been done, and the Tesla China ball has started rolling. We’ve got some interesting photos from the Gigafactory 3 groundbreaking ceremony, many thanks to Tesla Subreddit user u/JayinShanghai and our friend Vincent.
CEO Elon Musk also stated on Twitter that the Shanghai Gigafactory will produce affordable versions of the Model 3 and Model Y, and the higher-cost versions of the Model 3 and Model Y will still be built in the United States for the worldwide market, including China.
In his address to the Gigafactory China groundbreaking ceremony, Elon Musk said that Gigafactory 3 will be the most advanced factory of any kind in the entire world (video below) — he also thanked Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong and his team for their cooperation in building Tesla’s next-generation manufacturing facility.
Elon Musk said that with the resources available here, Tesla will be able to build the Shanghai Gigafactory in record time and that Tesla is looking for young engineering talent from China to pursue their mission.
Earlier today, we saw drone footage of the preparations for the Gigafactory 3 groundbreaking ceremony; again, Vincent was able to post this in a timely manner for our viewing pleasure. Let’s take a look at it.