Tesla is once again expanding Gigafactory Shanghai with new buildings coming on the east side. The carmaker also wants to add a design director to its Chinese team ahead of the new planned $ 25,000 electric car.
Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai
Gigafactory Shanghai was a big success story for Tesla in 2020.
After being able to quickly build the first phase in 2019, Tesla started production in the factory in 2020 and they managed to quickly accelerate production, which led to the factory contributing more than 140,000 cars to Tesla’s record year.
It only manufactured Model 3 vehicles in 2020, but the automaker has now started production of Model Y in anticipation of deliveries starting this month.
The size of the factory has more than doubled to accommodate the production of Model Y.
Now Tesla is expanding it again with new buildings coming on the current site, and it looks like Tesla is also expanding on more land on the east side of the site:
Tesla China Design Director
Furthermore, Tesla apparently also wants to rent a new design head for China.
Reuters reports:
Tesla Inc. is looking for a design director in China, who according to three people with knowledge of this will open a ‘full-featured’ studio in Shanghai or Beijing and design electric cars according to the Chinese taste.
This would not be Tesla’s first attempt to hire designers in China.
Last year, Tesla began taking design submissions for its tiny, tiny electric car manufactured by Chinese and shortly thereafter began renting for the program.
But it sounds like Tesla is now looking for a head of the design team in China to bridge the gap with the US team:
They are looking for ‘bicultural’ candidates with 20 or more years of experience who are familiar with Chinese taste and can bridge the gaps between China and the United States, they added.
Tesla also wants to deploy a complete design studio in the country.
Tesla’s $ 25,000 Electric Car
The team’s first project will likely be Tesla’s recently announced $ 25,000 electric car.
When CEO Elon Musk spoke at Battery Day last year about what Tesla’s new battery cell and the “structural battery pack” architecture could enable, CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla is offering a $ 25 electric car 000.
The CEO said in the announcement:
Tesla will make a compelling $ 25,000 electric vehicle that is also fully autonomous.
He made it clear that this new price point is being reached through Tesla’s new battery cell and battery manufacturing effort.
Last week, we reported that some documents on Gigafactory Shanghai suggest that Tesla could start manufacturing the new vehicle at the factory as early as next year.
The new expansion at the factory could also be to support the production of the new vehicle.
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