An unprecedented record in history: Elon Musk built a car factory over 800,000 m2 in 168 days, from applying for a license to putting it into operation.

Tram Ho

By the end of 2019, the first Tesla Model 3s made in China will be delivered to pre-ordered customers. It is manufactured at Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai. When that happens, this will probably be the rare case that Elon Musk – the famous CEO of Tesla can fulfill an ambitious “deadline”.

Musk has spent a lot of time during the past year in a crisis and many other things like the US Securities and Exchange Commission fined after the thoughtless speech on Twitter. But things in Shanghai go much smoother. Earlier this month, State Grid Corp activated the first transmission line to connect electricity to the Gigafactory.

Kỷ lục chưa từng có trong lịch sử: Elon Musk xây dựng 1 nhà máy sản xuất ô tô rộng hơn 800.000 m2 trong 168 ngày, kể từ khi xin giấy phép đến khi đưa vào hoạt động - Ảnh 1.

Xinhua said that it would take only 168 working days, or about six months, for Tesla to complete the Gigafactory from license to operation. “This speed is too fast, even by Chinese standards,” said Ivan Su, an analyst.

Built on a land of 860,000 square meters, Musk estimates that his company will produce at least 1,000 cars a week at the factory by the end of this year – the company’s production in the US ever reached. On October 23, Tesla said it began “building a complete vehicle”.

Tesla’s intense focus on China makes a lot of sense. Despite a 25% import tax, the country is the company’s second largest market, behind only the US and above Norway and the Netherlands. When demand in the United States is reduced due to taxes, China is still strong thanks to the regulations that owning ordinary cars is more expensive than electric cars.

Electric sales of both battery-powered cars and hybrid models reached 1.2 million units in China in 2018 – more than half of all electric cars sold worldwide in the same year.

Building factories in China allows Tesla to reduce its cost burden and avoid import taxes. The starting price of a sedan made here and also sold only to the Chinese market is 328,000 yuan ($ 46,000), making Tesla’s car more competitive than domestic carmakers. like BAIC Motor or BYD – at around 200,000 yuan each.

Due to last year’s regulations changes, the Model 3 will also be the first car manufactured in China from a factory wholly owned by a foreign company. This is a very rare case in the context of escalating trade war between the US and China. Musk has made many business trips to China. In August, he appeared with former Alibaba CEO Jack Ma at an artificial intelligence event in Shanghai and then met with many government officials including Transport Minister Li Xiaopeng in Beijing. . He also caught attention when eating hot air in this city. Not long after that, Tesla was exempted from the 10% sales tax on cars. Before that, only electric cars manufactured in China and Chinese companies were exempt.

Kỷ lục chưa từng có trong lịch sử: Elon Musk xây dựng 1 nhà máy sản xuất ô tô rộng hơn 800.000 m2 trong 168 ngày, kể từ khi xin giấy phép đến khi đưa vào hoạt động - Ảnh 2.

Elon Musk once accompanied Shanghai Mayor at an event in January.

Musk’s relationship with China puts him in a complicated political position, especially at a time when Google and many other companies have been criticized for their relationship with Beijing. That may explain why Musk, who has never been shy about publicly sharing what he thinks on Twitter, is starting to be more cautious about this, he is almost silent about the issues. China.

In fact, this strategy seems to be working. The Morningstar reporter said that the speed with which Tesla can buy land and borrow money from state-owned banks to deploy the Gigafactory plant showed that Musk received special support from Beijing. “What is surprising to me is why only the amount of time that the legal procedures are approved. Once they want, they can push things very quickly,” an analyst said.

 

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Source : Trí Thức Trẻ/Bloomberg