Tesla Inc is to build a new battery factory in Shanghai that is to start production in the second quarter of next year, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The company led by Elon Musk, who is visiting China this weekend, made the announcement at a signing ceremony for the project in Shanghai, the report said.
Tesla is to manufacture its Megapack large-scale energy-storage unit in the new facility, which adds to the company’s Gigafactory for electric vehicles in Shanghai and deepens its investment in China.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Construction is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year and the plant is to commence in the second quarter of next year.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Megapack is intended as a massive battery to help stabilize energy grids, with the company saying each unit can store enough energy to power an average of 3,600 homes for one hour.
The new factory would initially produce 10,000 Megapacks every year, equal to about 40 gigawatt-hours of energy storage, Xinhua said, adding that the products would be sold worldwide.
Musk’s visit comes at a time of heightened tensions between China and the US over everything from an alleged Chinese spy balloon being shot down over US skies to Beijing’s partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid his country’s war in Ukraine.
Musk is traveling with Tom Zhu (朱曉彤), who was named Tesla’s senior vice president of automotive this month.
Zhu joined in 2014 and led the construction and operations of Tesla’s factory in Shanghai, living in the facility during COVID-19 lockdowns.
He is one of just four named executive officers along with Musk, chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn and Drew Baglino, senior vice president of Powertrain and Energy Engineering.
After the US, China is Tesla’s largest market, accounting for 22.3 percent of revenue last year. The company increased shipments from its Shanghai plant last month.
In October last year, the electric vehicle maker — a major player in hyper-competitive China — cut prices on models produced at its enormous factory on the outskirts of Shanghai. Matters escalated in January, with another discount that left Tesla’s locally made vehicles as much as 14 percent cheaper than last year, and in some cases almost 50 percent less expensive than in the US and Europe.
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