Elon Musk breaks ground on new Tesla Gigafactory 3 in China

UPDATE : Elon Musk has finally broken ground on Tesla’s third Gigafactory, slated to come up in Shanghai, China.

Tesla CEO @elonmusk with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong at Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory ground breaking ceremony. $TSLA #Tesla #China #TeslaChina #GF3 pic.twitter.com/sIecnGsU71

— Vincent (@vincent13031925) January 7, 2019

EARLIER : Elon Musk has today announced via Twitter, that Tesla will go ahead with its accelerated plans to set up the China Gigafactory, with the groundbreaking scheduled to happen within the next few hours. This event will certainly help the company pace up the factory development, despite ongoing trade tensions between world’s two largest economies.

In a series of tweets, Elon has announced the ground breaking event. He has further detailed, that the electric car maker is aiming to finish initial construction this summer, and will start Model 3 production by the end of year. Volume production from the plant however, is expected to reach its peak only by next year.

Aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high volume production next year

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2019

Shanghai Giga will produce affordable versions of 3/Y for greater China. All Model S/X & higher cost versions of Model 3/Y will still be built in US for WW market, incl China.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2019

The new Gigafactory will produce Tesla Model 3 and the produce will be used to cater to Greater China region demands. While there is no official announcement on the regions the factory will cater to (except China of course), you can expect cars from this factory rolling out to other Asian markets as well, most likely India. China’s southern neighbour has already laid out aggressive electric mobility plans and Tesla has always been in the scheme of things.

Earlier this summer, Tesla announced a deal with the Shanghai government to build a wholly owned local factory. The company then accelerated the Gigafactory 3 plans in response to the trade war between the US and China.

In October, Tesla announced that it secured 210-acres of land for Gigafactory 3 in China and said that it is ‘on track’ with an accelerated construction plan.

Last month, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Shanghai Ying Yong stated that Tesla “basically completed land leveling and is about to start construction” at Gigafactory 3. The project is “expected to be partially put into operation in the second half of next year.”