Tesla Gets $1.4 Billion Loan to Expand Shanghai and Euro Factory Build Could Start Jan 2020

A Deutsche Bank report that construction to start in Berlin around January 2020 for Tesla Gigafactory 4.

16 thoughts on “Tesla Gets $1.4 Billion Loan to Expand Shanghai and Euro Factory Build Could Start Jan 2020”

  1. Well I haven’t checked myself. I assume that if they did promise to release all the patents but then held some back we’d see people complaining about it.

  2. China is the biggest EV market by far and if the chinese government – a big “if” admittedly – is serious about having 25% of all new cars being zero emission by 2025, an even bigger slice in the future. Tesla has done the right move. IP theft and theft of know how are of course real risks. But could they allow the biggest market to slip through their fingers and let a chinese manufacturer become the global leader by virtue of production volume?

  3. That would still be “free” by the standards of the multi-$billion cost of developing a new car platform.

    But good point on the “released to the public” being something I picked up from the media, rather than reality, which are often completely different things.

  4. Do the math – 150k cars a year at $40k is 6 billion in revenue. Why would a 1.5 billion loan paid out over decades be a remote concern?

  5. “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If they’re any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” — attributed to Ivan Sutherland

  6. Elon keeps burning through the cash. Borrowing billions in China? What a novel idea. Now he can pay his sky-high Shanghai taxes!

  7. I doubt Tesla still does that. Musk thinks he can always out innovate his competition, so far he’s been right, but it’s a very poor business strategy to help your competitors. Plus, revealing patents is one thing, and an entirely different thing is letting them see how every component is made, and process is done.

  8. I assume that by “rape and pillage” you mean “take all the IP”?

    But Tesla has already released all their IP to the public.

    Ostensibly because they want everyone to make EVs to save the planet, but presumably on the assumption that based on how hopeless all the car companies have been at adopting new tech that was already available, they couldn’t copy a good EV even if all the blueprints were handed right to them.

    Whether this assumption of universal incompetence for all other automotive competitors is correct will become apparent over the next few years. And might come up in a shareholder suit against Tesla if a big competitor DOES manage to take their profit margin.

  9. Operating in China made Apple one of the most valuable companies on the planet as well as helping China grow it’s domestic competitive companies and infrastructure. Tesla is more like Apple than other tech companies.

  10. Wow, that would be very surprising if they actually begin construction in Germany next month! The China plant was a terrible move, and they should have built in Europe first, and now could be expanding GF1.
    I would of ignored the country that wants to rape & pillage you. Deliver cars on ships, sure, but build them there, not a chance. Tesla was so enamored with a giant market and seeing dollar signs that they didn’t even question why/how they got full government support & were able to keep complete ownership of the company (the first in China to do so).

Comments are closed.