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| © CNET Tesla has taken a huge step towards building its Chinese Gigafactory thanks to a land deal that was announced on Wednesday. |
By Kyle Hyatt, Roadshow
Tesla announced on Wednesday that it had secured a 212.5-acre plot of land from the Shanghai government on which it will build its long-anticipated second Gigafactory location.
Tesla revealed the agreement on a Chinese social media post, Reuters reports. The deal that would allow the Gigafactory to be built near Shanghai was originally signed back in July, but it took some time to find a plot of land big enough for the vertically-integrated factory.
"Securing this site in Shanghai, Tesla's first Gigafactory outside of the United States, is an important milestone for what will be our next advanced, sustainably developed manufacturing site," said Robin Ren, Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales, in a statement to Reuters.
The Chinese Gigafactory is increasingly essential to Tesla as increased tariffs have made its vehicles less affordable in the world's largest automotive market. Tesla's Fremont factory has also had a difficult job in keeping up with global demand for its electric cars, and a new factory that combines battery pack production and vehicle assembly would likely go a long ways towards alleviating some of that pressure.
Tesla has already started hiring for the as-yet constructed factory, which is expected to cost more than $2 billion. The funding for this project is being sourced from the Chinese debt market, and hopefully is a little more secure than the funds that CEO Elon Musk said were in place to take the company private.
Tesla announced on Wednesday that it had secured a 212.5-acre plot of land from the Shanghai government on which it will build its long-anticipated second Gigafactory location.
Tesla revealed the agreement on a Chinese social media post, Reuters reports. The deal that would allow the Gigafactory to be built near Shanghai was originally signed back in July, but it took some time to find a plot of land big enough for the vertically-integrated factory.
"Securing this site in Shanghai, Tesla's first Gigafactory outside of the United States, is an important milestone for what will be our next advanced, sustainably developed manufacturing site," said Robin Ren, Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales, in a statement to Reuters.
The Chinese Gigafactory is increasingly essential to Tesla as increased tariffs have made its vehicles less affordable in the world's largest automotive market. Tesla's Fremont factory has also had a difficult job in keeping up with global demand for its electric cars, and a new factory that combines battery pack production and vehicle assembly would likely go a long ways towards alleviating some of that pressure.
Tesla has already started hiring for the as-yet constructed factory, which is expected to cost more than $2 billion. The funding for this project is being sourced from the Chinese debt market, and hopefully is a little more secure than the funds that CEO Elon Musk said were in place to take the company private.
