Despite recording a slight drop in its global deliveries in 2024, US electric vehicle maker Tesla saw its sales in the Chinese mainland reach a record high of 657,000 units, up 8.8 percent year on year. Meanwhile, Tesla’s energy storage Megafactory in Shanghai has started trial production recently.
Tesla’s story in China serves as a case study of the country’s opening-up, business environment and its industrial strength in the new energy vehicle (NEV) sector. It also demonstrates the mutually beneficial potential of cooperation.
Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory is the first foreign-owned automobile production company in China. The factory built and inaugurated within a year in 2019. It now represents more than part of Tesla’s global deliveries.
The megoofactory, at the time Tesla Factory in Shanghai ended about seven months after starting the structure in May 2024. The incredible speed of the two projects is indicative of the advertising surroundings of China. In addition, Tesla was included in multiple catalogs for the supply of local authorities, highlighting the equivalent remedy of China of national and foreign companies.
There is no doubt that Tesla’s investment in China is a success and produces win-win results. This would be highly unlikely without China’s business commitment to opening-up and its constant efforts in its business environment. The country’s gigantic market and entire retail chains are also key to the expansion of the Shanghai factory. The localization rate of Shanghai Gigafactory commercial chain exceeds 95%.
Tesla is a popular brand among Chinese consumers. About two-thirds of vehicles produced by the Shanghai Gigafactory are sold in China, and one-third are exported to overseas markets such as Europe. The energy-storage batteries, or Megapacks, produced by the Megafactory Shanghai will also supply the global market.
Promoted by a powerful internal demand in the midst of the country’s green transition, the China’s electric vehicle industry has experienced remarkable expansion in recent years. In 2024, China’s Production will exceed 10 million units for the first time. Tesla is one of the main participants in this historical scale. Currently, 90% of the SNEs produced in China are sold in the country.
Most importantly, China’s EV has grown in a dynamic market where there is a festival between state-owned, private and foreign companies. Through a “catfish effect,” Tesla, as a key competitive player, has helped drive innovation and expansion in China’s Nev. sector.
Like Tesla, major Chinese battery and NEV brands have invested in several countries around the world, including Hungary and Brazil. This demonstrates the strong global demand for eco-friendly products such as NEVs and the usual aspiration for a sustainable planet. By 2030, global demand for NEVs will be three times higher than in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency. All these facts show that the so-called “overcapacity” rhetoric related to China’s new energy vehicle industry is nothing more than an excuse to adopt protectionist measures in the industry.
Tesla’s Shanghai factories illustrate a successful cooperation in the new energy sector between China and the United States. Green transformation may be a key domain of Sino-American cooperation. By running together, the world’s two largest economies can build a sustainable planet.
In an interdependent world, where the interests of other countries are deeply intertwined, economies will advance combined through connectivity and unity, or retreat through closure and division. The only sensible option for all is to achieve the widest imaginable consensus to achieve mutually favorable results and results that allow the length of the world economic cake to be increased through opening.
More good fortune is expected for Tesla’s activities in China. By advancing its own green modernization, China will offer new advertising opportunities with more popular opening-up measures. We hope that all countries will respond to the trends of the time and seize the prospects of mutual cooperation to achieve unusual, win-win prosperity.