- Tesla China unveils plans for a new design studio in China.
- The image (above) revealed in the announcement shows off what could be a design study for future Chinese Teslas.
- The idea started with a talk CEO Elon Musk gave at the Shanghai Gigafactory last week.
Hot on the heels of the announcement that it is ahead of schedule producing and delivering the Tesla Model 3 in China, Tesla is now recruiting for a new design center in China via WeChat. As part of the series of images that the company shared on the social chat network, Tesla unveiled a drawing of a vehicle that could be the basis for a future vehicle or a design study of what the company is looking for from potential employees. Either way, if you’re a car designer in China, Tesla wants to talk to you.
This didn’t just come out of nowhere. Last week during a visit to the Chinese Gigafactory to mark the delivery of the first Model 3s in the country, CEO Elon Musk talked about opening a design studio in the country and hiring designers to build a “Chinese-style car.” Whether or not the vehicle seen in the WeChat posting is the basis for that vehicle is unknown.
Musk has a history of coming up with an idea and, within a few weeks, moving on it. His Boring Company went from an idea about tunnels being used to ease traffic to a company relatively quickly. Underground highways might be a thing of the future, but building a design studio in one of the largest automotive markets is a potentially smart move. Tesla is looking to the country to help grow its vehicle sales. Designing and building a vehicle specifically for China could help with that goal.
Currently, the Model 3 being sold in China is exempt from the country’s 10 percent purchase tax—a huge win for the company, even though the starting price there is about $50,000. The company said that it expects the Gigafactory in China to produce a 250,000 vehicles a year at the Shanghai factory. In the future, one of those cars could be designed by this new facility.
Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
