Tesla & Chongqing (China) Talk Projects — Probably Not A Factory

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Tesla and the municipality of Chongqing are reportedly in talks to accelerate some projects. This little nugget of gold was shared by Tesla Owners of Vancouver and confirmed by Reuters, which reported that Tesla met with officials from a district in Chongqing, which is located in southwestern China. The topic was “accelerating projects,” according to the Liangjang New Area.

Officials met with Tesla Vice President Tao Lin, who was welcomed by Duan Chenggang. Chenggag to “promote cooperation.” According to unidentified sources, this cooperation could involve the establishment of sales and maintenance centers. We normally would not report on the opening of sales and service centers, since they are minor in the grand scheme of Tesla’s ongoing growth and development and are frequently opening, but many were reporting this was for a second factory in China, which seems to not be the case, so we thought it useful to help tone things down.

Thanks for reporting responsibly 🙂 I’ve already seen some posts reporting this as “Tesla is building a second China factory”…

— 🐄moo roo bee🐝 (@mooroobee) July 14, 2020

Tesla Growth

Nonetheless, the fact that Tesla is moving forward with more expansion in China shows what many supporters have been saying all along: Tesla is just getting started and isn’t going anywhere. Tesla’s recent success with the fast-paced building of its Shanghai factory has shown that Tesla has grown from its struggles and its vehicles are in high and growing demand.

As Tesla focuses on the location of a new American Gigafactory — whether in Austin or Tulsa — it has confidence that is backed up by success in China (where Model 3 production capacity was 65% less expensive to build than in the US) and Berlin. Tesla has a plan and is sticking to it when it comes to building its factories, service centers, and Supercharging stations, despite what many critics have said about this plan for years. It is executing its vision.

What Could Tesla’s New Projects In China Mean?

I think that the meeting could be about Tesla Experience Centers. Back in 2019, we wrote about Tesla Experience Centers taking over China. Tesla Centers, as they are also called, serve as a mix of warehouses for deliveries, support locations for maintenance, and service centers as well as charging stations.

Giga Shanghai Updates

In other news, Tesla China announced, via advertisements, that it is hiring for sales and delivery positions along in coastal provinces. The ads for Delivery Experience Specialists and Product Experts share that these positions are needed in Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Changsha, Guanxi, and Hainan. This adds a bit more weight to my theory that Tesla China is in the process of setting up more Tesla Centers.

Another round of hiring in coastal provinces by Tesla China sales and delivery. pic.twitter.com/cuVIiI0jMW

— Kelvin Yang (@KelvinYang7) July 13, 2020

Currently, the Shanghai Gigafactory is developing Phase 2 to build Made-In-China Model Y vehicles. In May, Tesla China’s Vice President, Tao Lin, gave an interview with Xinhua in which she explained that the Model Y is expected to be mass-produced in the first quarter of 2021. She also noted that the Model Y is expected by many to become the best selling electric vehicle in China at that time. If you’d like to purchase one or are curious as to how much it would cost, you can configure one now — I configured one last month.

If you think 2020 looks good, wait until you see 2021.

Giga Shanghai ramped.

Giga Berlin ramped.

Giga America ramped.

Model Y in FOUR locations around the world.

the first Cybertruck starting to roll off the line at the end of the year…

First robotaxi approval…

— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) July 7, 2020

Tesla’s Plan Is Rolling

While 2020 has been a crazy year for many around the world, Tesla has managed to not only survive but stay on track despite the many challenges — including having a factory in China still growing and launching the Model Y in the US. Tesla still had more deliveries than Wall Street expected, and many think it will have its 4th consecutive profitable quarter, which could open the doors to Tesla being included in the S&P 500.

I doubt that Tesla will keep the pace that it’s on, though. I say that because Tesla is known for its speed of progress and I think it will be moving and producing faster by 2021 than it is today. In other words, today’s speed will be considered slow next year. In 2021, Tesla will have four Gigafactories producing the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, and even the Semi along with its more experienced models. And perhaps we will see a Giga Brazil, Tesla entering India, or the construction of a Terafactory as well.