Not until 2020 – comments by Musk on Tesla’s Shanghai factory hit suppliers’ and property stocks
Electric car maker to start China production in three years, says chief executive
Shares in Tesla suppliers and a Shanghai real estate developer plunged on Thursday, following comments by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk that the electric car maker would not open a widely anticipated factory and make cars in China until 2020.
Musk said on Wednesday during an earnings call that the company was still three years away from starting production in China.
“Don’t set your watch by this,” Musk said. “There’s a rough target of starting production in the next three years, and it will be serving the China market and some of the surrounding region.”
Shares in Ningbo Xusheng Auto Technology, an electric car parts manufacturer and major Tesla supplier, plummeted the maximum allowed 10 per cent to 52.25 yuan in Shanghai. Tianjin Motor Dies stock also plunged 10 per cent to 7.93 yuan in Shenzhen and was suspended from trading.
Shanghai Lingang Economic Development Group, a government-owned developer of industrial parks in Lingang district, also sank 10 per cent to 30.45 yuan in Shanghai.
The losses pared gains made by these stocks in the past two weeks.