Elon Musk completed his three-day visit to China on Thursday, and he’s positive about the future. The Tesla CEO met with the company’s local team and senior government officials, praising both for their future-facing strengths as the company makes preparations to build a Gigafactory in Shanghai.
The statements follows a Wednesday announcement that Tesla has signed a cooperative agreement to build a Gigafactory 3 electric vehicle factory in Shanghai. Once permits are approved, the company says it should take two years to complete and a further two to three years until it’s producing around 500,000 cars per year. Musk described on his Twitter Thursday that he had “excellent meetings with senior leaders in China, who are “very thoughtful about the long-term future.” Musk went on to share an image of himself standing in
The agreement is a pivotal moment for Tesla, as it confirmed last summer that it’s been working with the Shanghai Municipal Government to build a factory. The company has found itself shifting prices amid a trade war between the United States and China. While China was expected to lower import taxes on the company’s electric vehicles from 25 percent to 15 percent, it instead raised them to 40 percent, pushing the price of a Model S and X up by nearly $40,000.
In a statement regarding the new factory, Musk said: “Shanghai will be the location for the first Gigafactory outside the United States. It will be a state-of-the-art vehicle factory and a role model for sustainability. We hope it will be completed very soon. We’ve been impressed by the beauty and energy of Shanghai and we want our factory to add to that.”
As for where Musk plans to visit next? In the responses to his tweet, Musk said he “would love to” visit Korea, while he plans a trip to India “early next year.”
