Tesla Will Build a New Megapack Factory in Shanghai

Tesla announced a new megapack factory in Shanghai. Nextbigfuture has noted that the large electric truck market is about five times bigger in China than in the USA. Megapacks are needed to buffer the grid for megacharging for large electric trucks. I think this is the first step to getting Semi trucks into China and Asia.

China also has double the electrical energy than the US has. There is a need for megapack for the massive solar and wind installations in China. China does have energy in pumped hydro, but the large amount of solar needs megapack.

9 thoughts on “Tesla Will Build a New Megapack Factory in Shanghai”

  1. Elon just made his life much harder than it had to be. The Communists have no scruples and no honor. They will stab his back at the first opportunity.

    Communist China is not China. It is a warped Europeanized ideological twisting of China, wrapped in corruption and atavistic ambition for conquest.

  2. I would hope he is getting the money in advance. And that the economic health of his endeavors in China are not tied to the financial well being of any other Tesla enterprises. Putting investments in a place where a single bad man can make them all worthless on a whim can’t ever be a good thing.

    Also, I do wonder how well trucks will run in a country that has difficulty keeping its rail lines running in the winter. Also, given that the opportunities for hydroelectric power seem to be sharply on the wane, how much of the electricity is going to be made up by burning coal?

  3. Yeah, I am shocked that Elon/Tesla is taking this gamble when others are leaving. Does he know something that we don’t? I know many people worry about Musk as a major risk in Tesla investing, but I would put having major assets in China as a far bigger risk.

  4. The battery cells will be provided by CATL. I notice Tesla is partnering more and more with different battery cell manufacturing companies and using multiple chemistries. Along with manufacturing its own 4680s, it is smart hedging. I get it.

    Does anyone know what will keep CATL, LG, Panasonic, etc. from making their own Megapacks to compete? How much of an advantage does Tesla have and for how long? Car manufacturing is extremely complex, which limits competition. Megapacks don’t seem nearly as difficult.

    Just thinking out loud.

  5. Your analysis is ahead of most commentary on this one. As you have argued, the class 8 truck market is much larger in China, electrifying it is critical, that requires buffering the grid – which also has the ancillary effect of buffering renewables and reducing the need for peaker plants. China is run by engineers who will see this faster than US regulators. Building Megapacks in China is an obvious action and locating it in Shanghai with a spectacularly successful team and local government partnership is a no brainer.

  6. I sure hope that Tesla China is kept very carefully isolated from the rest of Musk’s enterprises; More than one industrialist has gotten too entangled with China only to discover that everything is political there, and they’ve given Xi the leverage to call the shots outside China, too.

    • I was thinking that. When China invades Taiwan and sanctions start piling on and Chinese assets start getting frozen in the West I would be shocked if China didn’t start nationalizing the assets of Western companies.

      If he wants to take that risk it’s not my money but he can’t claim he was taken by surprise. He knows who he is dealing with.

  7. I cannot understand why Tesla keeps investing in China when that country is militarily threatening to any one else obstaculating its imperialistic expansion dreams.
    The same for many other Western companies making business in China.
    Business first and don’t care the rest. For how long?

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