Tesla's $200 million battery plant in Shanghai has launched production, complicating Elon Musk's unique position atop the Trump administration as it engages in a trade fight with China while his company further invests in the giant economic rival of the US. China's state news agency posted photos of the ceremony at the 50-acre site, the Washington Post reports, which Musk did not attend. Another state outlet also celebrated the event, calling the plant, which was built in seven months, an example of "Tesla speed" and "Shanghai speed." The Paper said the factory is a "win-win situation for Tesla and Shanghai."
An energy-storage market analyst in Beijing said the positive coverage can be attributed to Tesla's role in "helping the local supply chain to strengthen and to consolidate" the market, in storage and electric vehicles. Despite the trade tensions, Zhang Xiaohan said, "Tesla is still quite a very notable, positive brand in China." The batteries made by the new factory enable utilities and large commercial projects to even out energy demand across a grid through peak demand and blackouts. The company says a single Megapack, which looks like a shipping container, holds enough energy to power about 3,600 homes for an hour.
Tesla's investment there includes its Shanghai Gigafactory, which produced vehicle No. 3 million last fall. After the US, China is Tesla's largest market, per the Post. China has imposed retaliatory tariffs in response to the ones leveled by President Trump. If Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Trump begin direct talks about the tariffs, Musk could be involved, says an international relations scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. The world's richest man is popular in China. But with the administration loaded with critics of Beijing—including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Elise Stefanik, Trump's pick for UN ambassador—Wu Xinbo cautions that role would not be easy. (More Tesla stories.)