Tesla can thank Trump, Beijing for speedy China launch

[Tam]

Tesla can thank Trump, Beijing for speedy China launch

The article thanks Trump for the tariff war that has motivated China to quickly helpTesla to build the Gigafactory and deliver the cars in just 357 days.

Without Trump's tariff war, there would not be any motivation for such a speedy completion of the Gigafactory.

Trump's tariff war depressed China's economy and China was willing to attract foreign investment such as Tesla Gigafactory to boost the economy up.

China cut the red tape and quickly helped Tesla with all the permits promptly.

China's state banks promptly helped finance even when Tesla was short of cash.

All of these good things happened just because of what the article calls the "ill wind"!

 

[SpudLime]

I think it can be argued that the Tarif's helped somewhat. But I feel that china has been so bent on their smog issues that they would have put all their chips in for the GF3 buildout as smog reduction is a pretty big priority over there.

 

[mkspeedr]

Horrible article - in my opinion. Luckily I am not an expert and my opinion does not get published.

 

[drtimhill]

Tesla can thank Trump, Beijing for speedy China launch

The article thanks Trump for the tariff war that has motivated China to quickly helpTesla to build the Gigafactory and deliver the cars in just 357 days.

Without Trump's tariff war, there would not be any motivation for such a speedy completion of the Gigafactory.

Trump's tariff war depressed China's economy and China was willing to attract foreign investment such as Tesla Gigafactory to boost the economy up.

China cut the red tape and quickly helped Tesla with all the permits promptly.

China's state banks promptly helped finance even when Tesla was short of cash.

All of these good things happened just because of what the article calls the "ill wind"!

Sounds like soap-boxing to me.

 

[Tam]

Horrible article - in my opinion. Luckily I am not an expert and my opinion does not get published.

Still, it can be information that might answer the 2018 article below when Tesla announced its intention to build the plant:

Tesla's plan to make cars in China won't be easy to pull off

1) Good luck on the uncertain timeline:

"Tesla will need to maneuver through levels of bureaucracy with the local and national government before this thing gets built," said Tu Le, head of Chinese auto consultancy Sino Auto Insights.

2) Intellectual Property Thefts:

"Tesla can't guarantee secrets won't leak out," said Eric Harwit, an expert in Chinese business at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Tesla may also struggle to find enough skilled engineers to staff its Shanghai factory, he added."

3) "Tesla has not said how much it expects the Shanghai production center will cost — or how it will pay for it."

4) "First it must navigate the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China."

The first article answered #1: Tesla beat the timeline by 1 year. #3: China banks run by China government advanced the cash so short of cash was never an issue. #4: Despite the trade war, Tesla has survived well and its growth is not slowing down.

The first article does not answer #2: Intellectual Property Thefts but Elon Musk did in the Delivery Ceremony that Tesla China will do the designs and engineering for the rest of the global market. Well, if China designs its own, then that is not theft!

 

[drtimhill]

My personal opinion is that the Trump tariffs made no difference whatsoever. The bureaucracies of the US and China are vast, and imagining that these top-level political wrangles can filter all the way down to a small (by Chinese standards) detail such as the Tesla factory seems improbable. More likely was the local officials looked favorably on the effort as a result of a much longer term policy (e.g. transition to EVs to cut severe pollution levels in cities).

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

It didn't make any difference because all China really wants is to have domestic manufacturing. Chinese cell manufacturer, and a bunch of other Chinese suppliers and manufacturing, assembled in China into a vehicle with a US badge, some of them exported around the world.

 

[Uncle Paul]

No matter who gets the credit, the main thing is that the amazing China Gigafactory was built and cars rolling off the line in less than a year.

Not sure there is any other place in the World that this could have been achieved.

Elon feels strongly that his cars should be produced in the Country near where the customers are. Better for everybody concerned.

Credit goes to both US and China for not screwing it up.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Tesla can thank Trump, Beijing for speedy China launch

The article thanks Trump for the tariff war that has motivated China to quickly helpTesla to build the Gigafactory and deliver the cars in just 357 days.

Without Trump's tariff war, there would not be any motivation for such a speedy completion of the Gigafactory.

Trump's tariff war depressed China's economy and China was willing to attract foreign investment such as Tesla Gigafactory to boost the economy up.

China cut the red tape and quickly helped Tesla with all the permits promptly.

China's state banks promptly helped finance even when Tesla was short of cash.

All of these good things happened just because of what the article calls the "ill wind"!

The gigafactory happened despite anything that the tariff imposed.

 

[Tam]

The gigafactory happened despite anything that the tariff imposed.

That statement sounds like agreeing with the article that tariff is the catalyst for China Gigafactory's success.

I understood that statement as even though there might be many worst obstacles raised by the tariff, they couldn't stop China Gigafactory's success.

Put that statement in another similar subject: Trump thinks his tariffs would reduce the trade deficit, so here's the article says it's the opposite:

Trump’s policies created a record-setting trade deficit in 2018

So if there's a statement saying: "The record trade deficit happened despite anything that the tariff imposed", that doesn't sound like a disagreement with the article because the tariff in this article is the catalyst for the record trade deficit which is opposite from what Trump thinks the tariffs would do.

 

[Tam]

I think the word "thank" in the first article is not a straight forward "grateful".

That's because in theory, Trump's tariff, a trade war... is punishment and normally should not be praised as an incentive to get China's economy growing.

It's like "Thanks for abusing me, slapping me, beating me up, putting me down..., I now have become a famous professional boxer."

There's a similar article talking about "Phase One" that was just signed off yesterday :

The China trade deal doesn’t protect American workers, or American interests

The U.S. protectionists have crashed the shares of industries that they have set out to help:

Here's United States Steel Corp that was at its high in $20's a year ago and now in its $10's

The cease-fire Phase One benefits China more than the U.S.

China's buying more porks is timely beneficial for China as it has suffered a swine flu epidemic.

The trade war did prompt companies to leave China but China has sweetened the deal and has also attracted other foreign investors including baking industries.

Tesla China is now hiring designers for its own design and research center to not just made-in-China but also designed-by-China.

From 'Made in China' to 'Designed in China:' Tesla Is Hiring Staff To Design Models In A New Local Research Center

The trade war is meant to bring economic growth to the U.S but not so as China is now enjoying more benefits from it.