Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point reporter Zhang Zisen
Tesla's thank-you letter to the Investment Promotion Bureau of Huaiyin District, Jinan City, flowed out on the evening of January 14, once again triggering industry discussions about the possibility of Tesla's second factory site in Jinan. This thank-you letter was paid for Tesla China rather than Tesla Jinan, and this detail is even more speculative.
Tesla urgently needs to build a second factory
In the past three months, Tesla has interacted frequently with Jinan.
On November 6, 2021, Sun Licheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Jinan Municipal Party Committee, visited the Tesla Vehicle booth at the 4th China International Import Expo, and discussed exchanges and docking cooperation with Wang Hao, general manager of Tesla China.
On December 14, 2021, Yin Qingzhong, vice mayor of Jinan, met with Liu Xuan, head of Tesla's foreign affairs region, and Gong Hai, Tesla's foreign affairs manager, to discuss the implementation of the intention reached during the 4th China International Import Expo, accelerate the promotion of new energy vehicles, jointly build data centers, and promote more projects to settle in Jinan.
Although the two official meetings did not involve factory construction, in terms of the supporting cluster effect required by the automobile industry, the joint construction of data centers is by no means the ultimate goal.
First, the lack of production capacity makes Tesla urgently need to build a second factory in China. Last August, Tesla announced the transfer of its global export center from the Fremont plant in the United States to the Shanghai factory. In 2021, the annual delivery volume of Tesla's Shanghai factory reached 484,100 units, an increase of 235% year-on-year. Tesla's global delivery volume in 2021 is 936,000 units, and the capacity delivery capacity of the Shanghai factory has accounted for 51.7% of Tesla's global delivery.
Since Tesla's global vehicle manufacturing plants are only the Fremont plant in the United States and the Shanghai plant in China, the production capacity of these two factories not only serves their respective local markets, but also takes into account the needs of other markets in Europe and Asia. In the case of the delay in the start of the Berlin plant, the Shanghai plant had to undertake the task of "rescue" for production capacity exports, resulting in Chinese users waiting for the car for a long time.
In addition, Musk knows how much potential China has for new energy vehicles as the world's largest auto consumer market. At the same time, Tesla wants to complete the strategy of competing with Volkswagen, especially in the context of the Shanghai factory undertaking 160,000 export vehicles, using the second factory to assist the Chinese mainland the market is imminent.
"Red Lady" BYD?
So as the most sincere Jinan, is it in line with the positioning of Tesla's second factory?
One of the cores of electric vehicles is the battery. On October 21, 2021, Tesla announced that its standard endurance model will use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries to replace the previous ternary lithium batteries. Although lithium iron phosphate batteries have a genetic disease with short battery life, BYD's blade batteries solve this problem to some extent.
On December 22, 2021, the signing activity of the second phase of the power battery project between the Management Committee of Jinan High-tech Zone and BYD Co., Ltd. was held at Yaoqiang International Airport, and the bydir project boots landed and production was just around the corner.
You know, in BYD's factories around the world, Jinan is not necessarily the highest output, but it is the most important one. After the completion of the production and construction of semiconductor + spare parts + vehicle, the two most important components of the new energy vehicle, the on-board chip and the battery, can be produced in Jinan.
Simply put, tesla needs to be shipped in half or two hours, and the freight is extremely low.
Jinan has a strong manufacturing base, with heavy truck, Geely, BYD and other automobile manufacturing enterprises, and traditional automobile manufacturing has formed a complete industrial chain. In the future, with the production of BYD's factory, the industrial chain of new energy vehicles is visible to the naked eye.
In addition, jinan's digital economy has developed rapidly, and it has been approved to build a national new generation of artificial intelligence innovation application pilot zone and an artificial intelligence innovation and development pilot zone, becoming one of the only three "dual-district co-construction" cities in the country, providing good conditions for the development of new energy intelligent vehicles and the construction of new energy vehicle data centers.
Tesla China mentioned in the thank-you letter that in 2021, jinan company sales will exceed 1 billion yuan. As one of the top three automobile sales markets in the country, Shandong's automobile consumption is developing towards upgrading and new energy, which is in line with the main market of luxury cars.
In addition to the huge market in Shandong, Jinan in Jiangbei is an important town on the Beijing-Shanghai line, radiating north of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the three eastern provinces, radiating west of Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and farther, and east through Weifang Port can directly dock with Japan and South Korea, which can not only assist the Shanghai factory to supply the whole country, but also cover Northeast Asia.
Of course, the reason why Jinan frequently interacts with Tesla is closely related to the boldness and determination of the government. As the capital of a large eastern coastal province and the central city of the Yellow River Basin, Jinan is deeply implementing the major national strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and accelerating the construction of a new and old kinetic energy conversion starting area.
In Jinan, the production and sales pattern of the east and west flowers of the automobile industry is being formed. Tesla China's thank you letter is grateful to the Investment Promotion Bureau of Huaiyin District in western Jinan: "Looking forward to 2022, we hope that with the support of your bureau, we will help build the 'Jingshi West Road Automobile Industry Belt' and boost the high-quality development of the provincial capital." ”