Photos: PCAuto
Tesla’s China factory is a huge and fast-growing enterprise. Tesla VP of Greater China Tom Zhu spoke to PCAuto about the factory management system, car pricing, and the new R&D center.
At the moment, Giga Shanghai already has 10,000 employees, managed by an administrative team of 4-5 staft. Despite the fact that Tesla has become the largest automobile company in the world by market value, Zhu sees the company as a startup.
“A startup's fortune has nothing to do with the company's valuation, high or low, and its profitability. It reflects spirit and culture."
To be competitive in the world's largest automotive market, Tesla strives to keep the prices of its cars as low as possible. The constant price decline of cars in China is a result of Giga Shanghai setting them based on the basis of production costs and supply chain domestic production rates. As efficiency increases and costs decrease, the price drops accordingly, said Zhu.
“Tesla prices will keep getting lower and lower. It can be understood that as long as we can optimize the supply chain and improve efficiency, we will transfer the cost reductions to consumers, and the principle remains the same."
Tesla is attracting an increasing number of local suppliers into the production chain. Chinese companies make up half of Tesla's more than 130 suppliers, according to public information.
In January 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the company would set up a research and development center in China. The company later announced a number of recruits to develop a small Chinese-style car. Zhu has maintained the mystery as to how this car will look and when it will be released.
However, he said that the R&D center is currently under construction near Giga Shanghai, the foundation of which has already been completed. When the building is completed, it will welcome a large number of engineering professionals who will start with the initial R&D and design, and make some significant improvements to existing models.
© 2021, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
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About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
