Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 In China Hires Its First Team

The Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai hired its first staff group, so that the company can start trial production in September. This is big news for Tesla. The goals that Elon Musk set out in January are being met on time.

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"The Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory will have its first team of employees as of this month's end after recent intensive recruitment. The plant will begin trial production in September"$TSLA #TESLA #CHINA #TeslaChina #GF3 #GigaFactoryhttps://t.co/29YuU0GuEE

— Vincent 🚀🟠 (@vincent13031925) July 16, 2019

Many Tesla skeptics (including certain members of the media) considered Gigafactory 3 a unicorn, citing pictures of empty fields as proof of their argument. However, we now see the plans were not only real, they were realistic. The fact that Tesla has now hired its first round of staff members for trial production in September should shut down any such theories and skepticism. We’ll see.

According to Yicai Global, which seems to have first broken the news, the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory will have its first team in place by the end of July. Tesla also hosted its third job fair for Gigafactory 3 (GF3) earlier this month.

And to show you further proof of the extent of Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in China, both Chao Zhou and Vincent on Twitter have tweeted various phases from beginning up until now of the GF3.

Aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high volume production next year

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2019

In January of 2019, Elon Musk said in a tweet that the goal was to finish the initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production at the end of the year, and reach high-volume production next year. So far, Tesla is right on track to do just that, since the exterior construction is complete and Tesla is in the hiring phase.

Tesla CEO @elonmusk with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong at Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory ground breaking ceremony. $TSLA #Tesla #China #TeslaChina #GF3 pic.twitter.com/sIecnGsU71

— Vincent 🚀🟠 (@vincent13031925) January 7, 2019

The photos in Vincent’s tweet above show the very beginning stages of the GF3 and the start of a timeline of progress that was well documented by both Vincent and Chao Zhou, who often get photos and videos of the GF3 site to produce weekly progress.

I bet gigafacotry 3 will be one of greatest and beautiful places to visit in Shanghai, although it takes 3 hours to get there.$tsla #Tesla pic.twitter.com/3qDm0FeTkc

— Chao Zhou 🧢 🔥🔥🔥 (@realChaoZhou) July 16, 2019

What Do Jobs For Chinese Citizens Mean For Us As Americans?

I’ve had several in-person conversations with friends locally about Tesla and some have questioned the morality of Tesla setting up a gigafactory in China. What I mean by morality is this question: How does this benefit the average American?

It does, and here is how:

The fact that an American auto company that many have touted as a failure has gone to the world’s largest economy and is now representing an American interest is huge by itself. Not only is Tesla a success, but it is leaving that legacy of almost dying behind as it embarks on meeting its ultimate goals. It is an American success story, and that is manifested in its continued growth and expansion, which fundamentally support its operations back at home.

Many hard-working Americans have the attitude that we should focus on America and our issues at home. I understand that and agree with it to a point. We do, as a nation, have a lot of work to do on issues such as education, homelessness, and poverty. Many cities, like Flint, don’t have access to clean drinking water. I could go on.

However, they don’t realize that by establishing a plant in China that employees citizens that are not American, it is a huge success for America as a whole. Tesla, whose CEO is also a humanitarian who has helped Flint, schools in Nevada, and also with hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, will continue to thrive as it expands globally.

Furthermore, Tesla did start in the US and has focused on serving the US market first. However, in today’s global world, and given the complex production and shipping requirements of the auto industry, automakers need to produce cars locally for certain markets. Tesla can compete at a very different level in China (many more cars per year) if it produces products for Chinese consumers in China. Just as BMW, Nissan, and others serve US consumers better by having US factories for those customers. It is not practical to expect automakers to produce all of their vehicles for consumers around the world on only one continent.

Many people who I’ve come into contact with in person also don’t know much about the stock market, how to invest, or even how to start a business. I’m talking about the average worker — the consumer who stops by Starbucks on the way to work or to the store to pick up an energy drink to get through the day. This person is part of Tesla’s target market. Anyone who drives is. This type of person is the one who needs to understand how Tesla is impacting America from within our borders, but also on a global scale.

The key messages for these people are: Tesla is succeeding as a business, which means expansion around the world in terms of both sales and production. Tesla continues to improve its products and pricing for the US market as well, and those products are indeed produced at home, in the USA. That is not going to change simply because Tesla is building a Chinese gigafactory for Chinese consumers.