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China Businesses Power Transportation

Tesla Is 'In Talks' To Build a Factory In China (qz.com) 55

Tesla confirmed yesterday that it is "in talks" with the municipal government of Shanghai to manufacture its vehicles in the country. Tesla said in a statement: "Tesla is working with the Shanghai Municipal Government to explore the possibility of establishing a manufacturing facility in the region to serve the Chinese market. As we've said before, we expect to more clearly define our plans for production in China by the end of the year. Tesla is deeply committed to the Chinese market, and we continue to evaluate potential manufacturing sites around the globe to serve the local markets. While we expect most of our production to remain in the U.S., we do need to establish local factories to ensure affordability for the markets they serve." Quartz reports: The announcement follows more than a year of speculation that the electric-vehicle maker would set up shop in China, and confirms that Tesla is altering its China strategy away from merely exporting vehicles in order to reach more Chinese consumers. Earlier this year, Musk made a stealth visit to China to visit Wang Yang, one of the nation's highest-ranking officials, to discuss Tesla's plans. Tesla has been selling vehicles in China since 2014, but to date, its share of the electric vehicle market remains marginal, at just 2% as of June 2016, according to trade blog CleanTechnica. There are several reasons for this, one of which is price. Tesla currently exports its vehicles to China, and the government places an import tax of 50% on Tesla cars. The sticker price for the most simple Model S in China is $104,972, compared to $69,500 in the US.
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Tesla Is 'In Talks' To Build a Factory In China

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  • Dear Tesla (Score:5, Informative)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Friday June 23, 2017 @07:48PM (#54679151)
    Bad Idea. They will build a factory, steal your secrets, then build several more factories using your secrets.

    Honestly, after the last 20 years how can anyone think China won't steal your secrets and sell them on the cheap?
    • Re:Dear Tesla (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday June 23, 2017 @09:05PM (#54679533)

      Bad Idea. They will build a factory, steal your secrets

      What secrets? Tesla has already opened all their patents [tesla.com] for anyone to use.

      Elon already has his billions. He is more interested in changing the world than in increasing his pile.

      • by Altanar ( 56809 )
        All of their patents are open, sure. That's not stopping them from having trade secrets that they haven't patented.
    • They will build a factory, steal your secrets, then build several more factories using your secrets.

      Maybe that's the point. [quora.com]

    • Like they did with Apple?

    • Bad Idea. They will build a factory, steal your secrets, then build several more factories using your secrets.

      Honestly, after the last 20 years how can anyone think China won't steal your secrets and sell them on the cheap?

      Because there are few secrets left to steal? China does a lot of it's own R&D. Telsa may be a darling for green energy in the USA, but the worlds largest electric car manufacturer.... BYD in China who have been at it for as long as Tesla have and outsell Tesla. There's nothing magical about Tesla that you can't reverse engineering by buying a car and taking it apart.

      Building a factory there is quite low-risk compared to actual technology companies. Now if SpaceX were building a factory in China, then we

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's that why no one buys iPhones any more, and the market has been saturated with cheaper knock offs? Silly Apple, building their phones in China.

  • I was surprised by the number of Teslas I saw on the Shanghai highways the last time I was there!

    • China is adopting green energy quite rapidly, but it's not Teslas that's amazing in China. It's BYD. Those EVs are everywhere you look.

      • by haruchai ( 17472 )

        I'm happier to hear about increasing numbers of electric buses.
        I'd buy an affordable EV but a single EV bus probably emits less than a diesel bus + 10 cars combined.
        Well, perhaps not everywhere in China with their huge (but declining) coal-fired electricity generation.

  • 50% import tax (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Remember when the president said he was going to fix all our bad trade deals?

    • But this is bringing jobs back! Once all those Telsa's are made, everyone will want one so bad, they will be motivated to nnovate million dollar companies so they can afford an $80K vehicle. That's how some people say it works, so who am I to argue.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        Why does Teslas need an apostrophe, but not jobs or companies?

      • You do know that you don't need to be a millionaire to buy an $80,000 vehicle, right?

        More over, you know that Tesla is only a week or three away from launching the Model 3, which costs roughly half that, right?

        • Have they announced the price of the Model 3? I know it is projected to cost $30K.

          And I didn't say you needed to make a million dollars, I said you need to be taking a salary from a million dollar company. A lot of people buy cars they can't really afford, which I'm sure is the case with many Tesla owners.
  • It surprises me that it took this long.
    Not only about the huge market that will be there, with China now leading Paris Agreement, Tesla absolutely can't afford not being there for all it's other related or non-related projects. Battery technology, solar power stuff...

  • ... because capitalism.

    Republics, democracies, autocracies, dictatorships -- all replaced by capitalism.

  • China SUV electric car with big space low price high quality US $6650.00 / Unit MOQ: 2 Units https://wholesaler.alibaba.com... [alibaba.com]

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