Tesla chief impressed by factory’s progress 
2019-08-30
TESLA CEO Elon Musk said yesterday that the Shanghai factory was progressing at a fast speed and he was satisfied with the work done by Tesla’s China team.
“Tesla’s China team has done an amazing job and I’m astounded how much progress has been made for the Shanghai Gigafactory,” said Musk during his discussion with Alibaba’s Jack Ma at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.
Musk also added that “it’s a good story for the world to see how much progress you can make in China. I really think China’s future looks very impressive.”
Musk met Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang later in the day yesterday.
Li said that “with the application of artificial intelligence, intelligent and connected vehicle is the future direction of the automotive industry.”
He added that Shanghai welcomes Tesla to put “more new technologies and products in the city for application and promotion.”
The Shanghai government is working with Tesla to speed up the construction of its factory in Lingang Area in the Pudong New Area. The US electric carmaker broke ground on its Shanghai factory in January this year.
The plant will be completed in September and vehicle production is expected to start by the end of the year.
The plant is expected to produce about 3,000 Model 3 electric cars per week in the initial stage with the prices of the smaller model starting from 328,000 yuan (US$46,300).
