Tesla has recently increased the registered capital of its Chinese subsidiary that would be running its planned manufacturing facility in Shanghai to the equivalent of US$680 million, Chinese media report.
Tesla has raised the registered capital of its Chinese unit from US$14.6 million (100 million yuan) to US$680 million (4.67 billion yuan) and expanded the scope of the subsidiary to include production, sales, and maintenance of EVs and parts, battery management systems, and high-power electronic devices, Electrek reports, quoting Beijing Business Daily.
Early in August, reports had it that Tesla started hiring personnel for its gigafactory in China, looking to hire 14 people, all in senior managerial and operating positions.
The China factory, to be built in Shanghai, will be Tesla's first production facility outside the United States. The EV maker signed the deal for the construction project with the Shanghai authorities in July. The factory is expected to double Tesla's electric car production, beginning in two years.
The peak annual turnout of the Shanghai factory will be half a million Teslas and the same amount of battery packs, to be achieved two to three years after the launch of production, Tesla said in July after the signing of the deal with Shanghai authorities. This will put it basically on par with Tesla's original factory in Fremont, California.
While initially, investments in the China factory were estimated at US$5 billion, Tesla said in early August the facility will actually cost much less: just US$2 billion, as CEO Elon Musk told investors during the conference call for the company's second-quarter financial results.
At home, Tesla and its shares have been under pressure with Musk's erratic behavior over the past month. Musk said in early August that he would take Tesla private, only to backtrack on that proposal two weeks later.
Last week, Musk smoked marijuana on a live video interview, after which Tesla's stock tumbled, also due to the resignation of Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton, who is quitting after just one month on the job.
Also on Friday, Musk sent an email to employees, informing them of a number of management changes, including that "Tesla's Chief People Officer Gaby Toledano has been on leave for a few months to spend more time with her family and has decided to continue doing so for personal reasons."
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More