Highlights from Elon Musk's visit to Shanghai for #Tesla Gigafactory 3 groundbreaking ceremony
Cars
Posted on January 7, 2019 |
by Steve Hanley
7. January 2019 by Steve Hanley
Elon Musk was in Shanghai on January 7 to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for Gigafactory 3, Tesla's first gig factor outside the United States. Not surprisingly, Elon took to Twitter to celebrate the event … just a couple of hours after we published the news. But there are some things you may have missed if you took our early coverage and were not updated in the last 24 hours.
Shanghai Giga will produce affordable versions of 3 / Y for larger China. All model S / X and higher cost versions of Model 3 / Y will still be built in the US for the WW market, including China.
̵[ads1]1; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2019
After the ceremony, Musk spoke to the local press and said that he is very impressed with the speed and quality of his work in Shanghai. He specifically pointed to the fact that a large multi-track Supercharger location was completed in just 12 days last year, the fastest anywhere in the world. He indicated that the factory building would be completed in the middle of the year and would start producing cars by the end of 2019 if all goes according to plan. (When has it ever happened?)
He was in pain to explain that Tesla absorbs tariffs imposed by China on American-built cars. Gigafactory 3 – which will have a capacity of 500,000 cars per year – will focus on producing the more affordable versions of Model 3 and later Model Y, so Chinese customers can start driving sustainable cars as soon as possible. The factory will also build cars for export to other Asian markets.
The more expensive versions of the Model 3 – Long Range, All Wheel Drive, Performance Upgrade – will still be produced in America. There are higher profit cars and Musk says the company must sell many of them to pay for the new factory. He urged people in China to place their orders for the US cars to fund the Shanghai facility.
Tesla has learned a lot from building model 3 production lines in the United States, and these lessons will be used to bring the new Shanghai factory online as soon as possible. Musk also encouraged local engineering to join the Tesla team, saying that a junior engineer today could quit taking the job one day, as the opportunities for progress within the company are almost limitless. For more on Musk's comments, check out the video below.
About the Author
Steve Hanley Steve writes about the technology-sustainability interface from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere Singularity can take him. His motto is "democracy is socialism." Do you have a problem with that?
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