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Tesla secures a site in Shanghai to build its Megapack energy-storage battery plant

  • The US carmaker will produce 10,000 massive batteries a year at the Megafactory in Shanghai’s Lingang free-trade zone
  • ‘The battery plant shows that Tesla is resolute in tapping China’s new-energy market,’ says analyst

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It will be Tesla’s first manufacturing facility for energy-storage batteries outside the US. Photo: SCMP Handout
Daniel Renin Shanghai

Tesla has bought a parcel of land in Shanghai for a factory where it will build its Megapack large-scale batteries, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

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The US carmaker will produce 10,000 massive batteries a year at the Megafactory in Shanghai’s Lingang free-trade zone (FTZ) when construction of the plant is complete. A land acquisition agreement was signed on Friday morning, Xinhua said.

“After securing the site, Tesla will officially launch the project with substantial steps taken to get production up and running,” said Gao Shen, an independent analyst in Shanghai. “The battery plant shows that Tesla is resolute in tapping China’s new-energy market.”

Shanghai Communist Party boss Chen Jining told Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a meeting during the billionaire’s trip to mainland China in June that the American company was welcome to bring new products, technologies and services to the mainland’s financial and commercial centre.

Construction had been expected to begin in the third quarter of this year, with the plant scheduled to start operations in the second quarter of 2024, Tesla said in a statement in April when it signed a pact with the Lingang FTZ administration commission.

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Xinhua did not mention a possible new time frame in its report on Friday.

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