Tesla Inc. is reportedly thinking of investing $5 billion to set up a factory in China.
According to a Bloomberg report, a person familiar with the matter (but unwilling to be identified as the plan is still private) said that the U.S. electric carmaker wants to raise some of the investment funds in China for building its factory near Shanghai. Production of Tesla’s Model 3 is expected to begin by 2020 in the China plant, according to the same person.
With China being the largest market for electric cars, it looks like Tesla does not want to lose its sales to China’s tariffs on U.S.-made cars – something that might be attracting the U.S. carmaker towards Chinese soil for production.