Tesla’s Elon Musk thanks Chinese government ahead of expected approval for Shanghai factory

Tesla’s celebrity chief executive Elon Musk expressed his appreciation to the Chinese government in an earnings call on Wednesday, foreshadowing a future announcement on the location of its first factory outside the US.

The American electric car giant is having a “good discussion” with the authorities and is close to announcing details of a so-called Gigafactory in China – a Tesla facility that produces lithium ion batteries – which would later expand into vehicle production. 

“We’re very appreciative of the fact that the government of China has announced that they will be allowing full ownership of manufacturing facilities in China,” Musk said during the call.

The comments came after Beijing announced it would scrap foreign ownership limits on local electric car firms starting from this year, paving the way for Tesla to set up a wholly owned car assembly plant in China. Earlier this year, Twitter posts by Musk decrying China’s unfair automotive trade practices caught the attention of US President Donald Trump. 

“An American car going to China pays 25 per cent import duty, but a Chinese car coming to the US only pays 2.5 per cent,” the billionaire entrepreneur tweeted in a reply to a Trump post in March about the trade deficit. “Also, no US auto company is allowed to own even 50 per cent of their own factory in China.”