China ended its JV rule for the auto industry in April 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/business/china-auto-electric-cars-joint-venture.html https://www

China ended its JV rule for the auto industry in April 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/business/china-auto-electric-cars-joint-venture.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/business/china-auto-elect... Tesla was the first auto company to take advantage of this exception, some have argued that this exception was specifically carved out to incentivize them to build the Shanghai Gigafactory