- 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.