According to state media, Tesla formally opened a sizable battery production project in Shanghai on Friday. This is the US electric car manufacturer’s second plant in the Chinese city.
After Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave investors a hazy but audacious plan to accelerate expansion, the project was revealed in April.
On Friday morning, company executives signed a contract to purchase land for the facility outside of Shanghai, as reported by the official news agency Xinhua.
According to Xinhua, the plant is scheduled to “break ground in the first quarter of 2024 and start production in the fourth quarter,” producing 10,000 Megapack batteries annually for Tesla.
The US-based electric vehicle manufacturer claims that its Megapacks, which have a capacity of more than 3 megawatt-hours each, are designed to stabilize the supply of electricity for power grids.
The facility will be Tesla’s second in the Chinese metropolis, following the company’s huge Shanghai Gigafactory, which began construction in 2019.
Musk visited China earlier this year, meeting with senior officials in Beijing and visiting the Shanghai Gigafactory.
Musk’s interests in China have long raised eyebrows in Washington, with President Joe Biden saying in November that his links to foreign countries were “worthy” of scrutiny.
