Tesla to build new Gigafactory in China with the capacity of producing 500,000 EVs per year

Tesla signed a agreement with Shanghai Municipal People’s Government yesterday to build the first Gigafactory outside United States — Elon Musk and Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong were present at the contract signing ceremony.

China is taking serious measures in promoting Electric Vehicle adoption as it faces worst environmental situations due to gasoline/petrol powered vehicles among other factors. Musk earlier this year praised China for their vehicle manufacturing policies, forcing companies to rush EV production as soon as possible.

Last year Elon Musk visited China and met with the Vice Premier Wang Yang in relation to building a Tesla manufacturing facility in the country. Lately China has allowed EV manufacturers to own the full company without a Chinese partner/stakeholder, Elon Musk is acting proactively to seize the opportunity.

Tesla sales dropped in China in Q1 2018 as a result of Trump/China trade policies — a factory in China will help Tesla gain the momentum once again by avoiding the extra import taxes and duties in China.

Tesla’s China Gigafactory will have the same capacity of producing 500,000 EVs as the U.S. Gigafactory in Nevada. Tesla has an aggressive sales policy for China as the country is potentially the largest EV market of the future, therefore Tesla debuted the Model 3 officially at Auto China 2018 a couple months back.

Musk will be able to get much help from the experience of his VP Of Sales Asia Pacific ‘Robin Ren‘ who was born and raised in Shanghai to move smoothly with Mission China.

Financial analysts think that Tesla will need around $4 to $5 billion in order to build the Chinese Gigafactory and that will take more than Tesla Model 3 sales alone to accomplish — let us know what you think in the comments section below.