BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla Inc plans to add facilities at its Shanghai factory to repair and reproduce key components such as electric motors and battery cells, a document submitted by Tesla to Shanghai authorities shows.
China, the world’s biggest car market, sold over 1.3 million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles last year. China’s regulators are adding rules on recycling of key EV components to save materials and protect the environment.
The document also said Tesla will add manufacturing capacities for car structures and electric motor controllers. It did not put detailed figures of its manufacturing capacities.
Tesla, which is making electric Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, is expanding manufacturing capacity of EV components to localise the supply chain. It also added a factory to make EV chargers in Shanghai last year.
Tesla, which said on its website that materials in a Tesla car’s battery are recoverable and recyclable, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tesla sold more than 35,000 locally-made vehicles last month in China and is exporting China-made cars to Europe.
(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Tony Munroe; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
