Photo: Tesla/Liaoning
Tesla recently announced investments to expand the production at Giga Shanghai from 450,000 vehicles per year to up to 1.5 million units annually. That would be enough for the company to expand exports to other countries and still meet the demand in China. Despite that, there are rumors that it may plan to build a second factory there.
The Chinese media started talking about this when the Chinese province of Liaoning released a weekly report called “Five Grasps.” In it, Liaoning disclosed that the Dadong district in Shenyang, the province’s capital, was preparing to “lay the foundation for the implementation of major new energy vehicle projects such as Tesla.”
That plan is part of the fifth grasp mentioned in the report, which includes adhering “to urban renewal as a major opportunity to attract investment.” It is not clear if Tesla is in an investment that the Dadong district already attracted or one that it plans to ensure. Despite that, websites such as IT Home did not waste time to make the rumor public, revealing the entire text included in the “Five Grasps.”
Coincidence or not, Elon Musk said at the Q4 2021 earnings call that the company would announce new factories by the year’s end. It may be the case that a new factory in China is in the plans. Other rumors could give this one more substance.
One of them said that Tesla bought enough Blade Batteries with BYD to manufacture 204,000 new EVs per year in China. The Chinese blogger who posted about that even knew the model of the batteries that were purchased: C112F. A while after writing about that, he erased the post, which gives us the impression that he was forced to do so either to protect his sources or because BYD or Tesla may have threatened to sue him.
More recently, Beijing also revealed that Tesla’s design center in China will be established in China’s capital. It will also receive the Phase 1 factory of WeLion, NIO’s semi solid-state battery supplier. The Chinese automaker promised it would have its 150-kWh battery pack with these cells in 2022.
The pieces of this puzzle still do not make much sense when put together. The rumors may also be just a way for Tesla to come up with better news in the midst of all the bad publicity it got from the DFEH lawsuit against “systemic racism” in its Fremont factory.
That plan is part of the fifth grasp mentioned in the report, which includes adhering “to urban renewal as a major opportunity to attract investment.” It is not clear if Tesla is in an investment that the Dadong district already attracted or one that it plans to ensure. Despite that, websites such as IT Home did not waste time to make the rumor public, revealing the entire text included in the “Five Grasps.”
Coincidence or not, Elon Musk said at the Q4 2021 earnings call that the company would announce new factories by the year’s end. It may be the case that a new factory in China is in the plans. Other rumors could give this one more substance.
One of them said that Tesla bought enough Blade Batteries with BYD to manufacture 204,000 new EVs per year in China. The Chinese blogger who posted about that even knew the model of the batteries that were purchased: C112F. A while after writing about that, he erased the post, which gives us the impression that he was forced to do so either to protect his sources or because BYD or Tesla may have threatened to sue him.
More recently, Beijing also revealed that Tesla’s design center in China will be established in China’s capital. It will also receive the Phase 1 factory of WeLion, NIO’s semi solid-state battery supplier. The Chinese automaker promised it would have its 150-kWh battery pack with these cells in 2022.
The pieces of this puzzle still do not make much sense when put together. The rumors may also be just a way for Tesla to come up with better news in the midst of all the bad publicity it got from the DFEH lawsuit against “systemic racism” in its Fremont factory.
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