From the mud field to the plug, there is a story of growth, determination, and persistence despite opposition. The plug is when the first car built at Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory plugs in, and it symbolizes success and another major milestone achieved. The message is clear, keep on doing and ignore the haters.
Tesla has agreed to source battery cells for the Model 3 cars it makes at Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai from LG Chem. The cells will be made in China. CATL and Panasonic may also provide battery cells in the future.
An internal email to employees dated July 9 from Jerome Guillen, President of Automotive at Tesla, said the company is “making preparations” to raise output at its factory in Fremont, California (where we recently interviewed him). “While we can’t be too specific in this email, I know you will be delighted with the upcoming developments,” Guillen said, according to a report by Bloomberg, which claims to have seen a copy of the email.
Mercedes-Benz announced the start of production for its EQC this week, as chairman of the board Dieter Zetsche announced that, “this is the dawn of a new era at Mercedes.” At a starting price of 59,900 euros, the EQC will be well-equipped, but will initially launch with the preconfigured 400 4MATIC Edition 1886, at a premium price of 84,930 euros.
Another month passes, another 43 GWh of battery factory capacity is brought into the planning pipeline for production in 2023, adding over 4% to the global total, in just a single month (50% annualized growth).
Welcome to the next issue of China x Cleantech, our December 2018 edition. The year has closed, but let us review the final interesting cleantech developments from China last year.
Tesla’s customers in China could be receiving their Model 3s as early as March or April, according to hot news today from a little blue bird. Tesla is continuing to ramp up its supply chain teams in preparation for the Model 3 launch abroad, and CEO Elon Musk noted that there could be a few deliveries to China in March, but that April was more certain.
