It is a small revolution for Tesla. The u.s. champion of the electric car announced, Tuesday 5 June, the construction of a giant factory in China, in Shanghai, the first located outside of the United States. For the moment, Tesla assembles its cars in Fremont, south of San Francisco (California), and produces its batteries in its Gigafactory in Reno (Nevada).
The Tesla is selling well in China, but at a prohibitive price, as they are subject to an import tax of 25 %. For Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, and produce is ” really the only way to make vehicles affordable to China “, he explained during a phone call with investors, in the night of Monday to Tuesday.
Tesla will be the first company to benefit from the relaxation of the rules of installation for the automakers foreigners in China, announced on 10 April by president Xi Jinping. Up here, they were forced to partner with a chinese partner to form a joint venture.
This model, implemented in the early 1990s, limited the share of foreigners to 50 %, in order to promote the development of a local industry. But it was increasingly criticized by western countries, who accused her of promoting transfers of intellectual property for the benefit of the local competition, and blame the protectionism of outdated the world’s second economic power.
“Soles of lead ”
The company Elon Musk was at the heart of the debate. In the fall of 2017, negotiations with the authorities of Shanghai had been divided over the question of the control of the entity : Tesla wanted a company 100% – owned, while the city wanted to impose a joint venture.
In fact, both parties knew that the rules were about to change, but the official announcement was made six months later, in full hostilities, trade between Beijing and Washington,…
