Tesla's Musk to visit Shanghai for event with government

Tesla’s Elon Musk is due to be in Shanghai at an event with the government on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the plans.

The chief executive officer will also visit Beijing on Wednesday and on Thursday, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

While details of the trip weren’t immediately available, Tesla has been working on setting up a production facility in China for more than a year.

Tesla’s effort to build a plant in the world’s largest market for electric vehicles has taken on more urgency due to the trade war that’s ensnared cars being shipped back and forth between the US and China.

Tesla raised prices of Model S sedans and Model X crossovers in China by as much as $30 000 after Beijing imposed additional duties on American-built autos, putting its vehicles beyond the reach of more Chinese consumers.

A Tesla China spokesperson didn’t reply to an email seeking comment, and multiple calls made to a mobile phone weren’t answered.

Shanghai manufacturing

Tesla said in June 2017 that it was working with the Shanghai government to explore local manufacturing. The company’s only car-assembly plant is in Fremont, California, and it also has a battery factory in Nevada.

In November, Musk said Tesla was about three years away from starting production in the world’s largest auto market. The plant will make a couple of hundred thousand vehicles a year for buyers in China and potentially other parts of Asia, he said at the time.

Tesla probably will make the smaller and cheaper Model 3 and upcoming Model Y crossover in China and won’t build the pricier Model S or Model X there, Musk said then.

In June, he told shareholders that the company may announce more details as soon as this month about plans to build a car, battery-pack and powertrain factory in Shanghai.