Tesla starts building battery factory in Shanghai
US electric carmaker Tesla started building a factory in Shanghai to produce its Megapack energy storage batteries, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday.
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A $200 million (185 million euros) investment in Shanghai's Lingang Free Trade Zone will host Tesla's first battery factory outside the United States.
Tesla opened a car factory in Shanghai in 2019, which assembles vehicles for China, Europe and other foreign markets.
It is the second-biggest seller in China's electric vehicle market, the world's largest. The market leader is domestic brand BYD.
State news agency Xinhua hailed Tesla's commitment to investing in China and "defying the rhetoric of 'decoupling'" between the US and Chinese economies.
It said the factory is expected to start mass production in early 2025, with an initial capacity of 10,000 units per year.
According to Tesla's website, each Megapack can store more than 3.9 megawatt-hours of energy -- enough to power an average of 3,600 homes for an hour. They are designed primarily for utilities and commercial facilities.
Such storage units have become increasingly important with the growth of solar and wind power, which only generate electricity when weather conditions are favourable and need to be stored to provide power to homes and businesses when they are not.
China is by far the world leader in installed solar and wind capacity, making it a key market for energy storage.
The Asian country accounted for three-quarters of global clean energy manufacturing investment in 2023 across all technologies -- solar, wind, green hydrogen and heat pumps -- and the International Energy Agency (IEA) sees no change in that dominance in the medium term, according to a report.
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