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Musk: Tesla will have a factory in China
- deletes 13y agoJust get that production going. If only they had the capability of Nissan( Leaf ).
- rmckayfleming 13y agoWon't they be required to do this as a joint venture?
- dave1619 13y agoYes it will have to be a joint venture.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- gametheoretic 13y agoSee literally the 2nd sentence of the article.
- ape4 13y agoThere goes any trade secrets.
- coldtea 13y agoYes, because Apple lost their trade secrets by having their factories in China, right?
- johansch 13y agoPerhaps they actually did lose some manufacturing process secrets, how are we in a position to tell?
- midas007 13y agoOEM/ODM contract manufacturers do most of the heavy lifting of figuring how to make things cheap. Most of the time they cut corners creatively and save everyone money and it works out, but sometimes the low-volume shops go too far and break functionality.
- coldtea 13y agoBecause Apple is notoriously secretive and it still uses China for manufacturing. And because it hasn't brought any litigation against some Chinese for something like this. So, even if they did lose something, it shouldn't have been much. Which means "making Tesla there == there go your trade secrets" is not necessarily correct.
- sliverstorm 13y agoSince when has Apple relied on trade secrets? They are all about product, branding, image, and experience.
- elzed 13y agoand lawsuits, lots of lawsuits.
- ChrisNorstrom 13y ago" If we published patents, it would be farcical, because the Chinese would just use them as a recipe book" - Elon Musk
- speeq 13y agoHe's talking about SpaceX there because the enforce-ability of patents against governments is questionable - Tesla actually files a lot of patents.
- Mikeb85 13y agoHah. Electric cars have been a thing in China for awhile. Look up BYD... They develop batteries for electric cars too....
- oblio 13y agoDesigned by Tesla in California. Manufactured in China :)
- zackmorris 13y agoThe next-to-last sentence caught my eye: "The automaker recently announced that import tariffs and transportation costs will push the price of its Model S in China to $121,000, or roughly 50 percent more than the plug-in sedan costs in the U.S." We'll never hear it mentioned in American news, but we had import tariffs up until the 80s when we adopted supply-side economics as our ideology. We wonder why our manufacturing has all gone overseas, well there is actually a very simple explanation. Other countries still protect their manufacturing with tariffs while we don't. American workers can't compete with countries that have no minimum wage, no environmental protections, and few (if any) anti-corruption laws that are actually enforced. In fact if you go back far enough (and this might appeal to skeptics with a libertarian slant) tariffs were a primary form of taxation before income tax. I wish we could at least have an open debate about bringing some of them back, with projections and an honest analysis of what it would do for American industry. But with corporations seeking ever-lower costs by design, and politicians ramming through the TPP at top speed, I don't see it happening any time soon.
- cashmonkey85 13y agoI hope no one else thinks this is a good idea. The problem isn't corporate control of government stopped this but the fact it would do so much damage to the American economy and maybe start a trade war.
- adventured 13y agoIt would absolutely start a trade war, that America would lose very quickly. The incorrect assumption here is that America has more to gain than lose from doing that, when such couldn't be further from the truth. America is temporarily riding on a fake consumer driven economy supported by the cheapest debt in world history and cheap imports from other countries like China; emphasis on temporary. Our ability to rapidly scale up domestic manufacturing is non-existent, so in the midst of a serious trade war, nearly every single thing Americans buy would skyrocket in price and decimate the already tapped-out consumer, leading to millions of laid-off service sector workers. This is going to happen anyway, as China and others can increasingly afford their own cheap goods and don't need to export them to us, and the days of cheap debt are coming to an end very soon. It would just accelerate the erosion of what's left of America's economic fantasy. And none of this even touches on the dumping of US Govt. junk paper by a country like China, which would collapse the economy instantly into either an Argentina / Venezuela style inflation nightmare (as the Fed has to print ever larger sums to keep the government solvent), or a Greece slash & burn scenario.
- moocowduckquack 13y agoMakes perfect sense for selling outside north america, should help them with the court case over their marque in China as well. http://www.ibtimes.com/tesla-motors-tsla-china-zhan-baosheng-takes-down-sites-depicting-his-chinese-tesla-1387509 http://www.ibtimes.com/tesla-motors-tsla-china-zhan-baosheng...
- mrmincent 13y agoFord & GM (Holden) are ceasing car production in australia over the next couple of years. I'd love to see tesla sweep in and pick up all the manufacturing plants on the cheap and take over.
- prawn 13y agoI agree completely. Plus build a supercharger network down the East Coast and from Melbourne to Adelaide. Make driving the Great Ocean Road in an electric vehicle a "thing to do" when you're in Australia. We don't have quite the population of the US, but the potential for solar here is strong too. Not to mention that Woomera may align with Elon's SpaceX interests. And then, if we're still dreaming, a Hyperloop from Sydney to Melbourne, currently one of the most flown travel legs in the world.
- scott_karana 13y agoWhy are the plants closing? Ford of North America has been fairly profitable, so I hope it's not a labour pricing issue in Australia, or there'd be no point :(
- hangonhn 13y agoI wonder how they're going to navigate that since companies in China must be 51% Chinese owned. This is why Chinese cars are often joint ventures between foreign and domestic car companies. Chinese car companies would love nothing more than to acquire advanced electric car technology because they're so disruptive. They can in a flash disrupt all the technological advantages foreign car companies have in their technical know-how around gasoline and diesel engines. If Tesla's IPs and manufacturing capabilities end up in Chinese hands, all foreign car companies would be so screwed in China and possibility else where. The Chinese have shown a lot of boldness in their infrastructure projects. I can imagine them building charging stations throughout the country in just a few years. Once that happens, all gasoline cars would be at such a disadvantage. The relative efficiency of electricity generated from power plants vs. gasoline cars could have a significant effect on China's oil import (their major Achilles Heel) and pollution. China has no qualms about nuclear power. BTW, China also has the world's biggest automobile market. The Chinese would love to have a Chinese Tesla. If I was the Chinese, I might even consider buying up Tesla.
- schuke 13y agoForeign automakers like VW and Toyota have been producing cars with joint venture companies in China for decades yet they still keep the core technologies to themselves. Their Chinese partners still struggle to make anything remotely close. For more than a decade the joint venture model has been seen as a failure for the Chinese auto industry. So perhaps Tesla wouldn't worry that much about losing their tech.
- moca 13y agoAssembly line in China makes sense. VW and Audi have been there since 80s. Anything more than assembly line would be very questionable. It is much like how Apple builds iPhone in China, plus many others.