Tesla secures loans for Shanghai plant

Tesla has secured financing for the first phase of its China plant in Shanghai as it signed credit agreements with Chinese banks for up to 3.5 billion yuan (around 465 million euros).

Tesla lenders include China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, according to media reports. The shares of the Californian electric car manufacturer improved by 2.3 per cent after the announcement of the announcement in post-trading.

Just yesterday news from China suggested that the building for the Shanghai plant will be completed in May, according to a Reuters report with reference to a Chinese government official. He said that the first production lines would be commissioned by the end of the year. Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 will not only produce batteries but also complete electric cars. Tesla officially laid the foundation stone for the factory at the beginning of January.

Meanwhile, CNBC reports, citing six current and former employees, that Tesla has not yet made a decision about the US production site for Model Y, the presentation of which is scheduled for March 14. Tesla had stated in the latest quarterly figures that Model Y would “most likely be produced at Gigafactory 1”, but according to the CNBC report, Tesla is also considering combining the Model S and Model X production lines at Fremont to make room for Model Y production.

In other Tesla news, Tesla has had to change the prices on its website in Germany. The price indication “after estimated savings” and, in the case of instalment payments, the “monthly instalment after savings” were deemed inadmissible under competition law, according to German competition regulatory authorities. This refers to the fact that Tesla when configuring all its models, had ultimately quoted two different prices: the real purchase price and the price “after estimated savings”. The latter price was less costs that are not incurred by the Tesla customer, such as fuel costs or tax breaks. The difference between the real price and the price “after estimated savings” is 7,000 (Model S), 5,500 (Model X) or 5,000 euros (Model 3). In the case of financing, Tesla had compared the real rate with a “monthly rate after savings”. This advertising practice is classified by the competition authorities in Germany as “misleading price presentation”.

Tesla has reacted by changing their pricing details to only giving one price in the German configurator. Also, the fuel savings can be calculated by the user. The mileage per year and the cost per litre can be entered separately. Now in the company’s details in Germany, Tesla tells customers how possible savings of driving an electric car can be calculated further down in the configurator.

bloomberg.com, reuters.com (bank loan), cnbc.com (Model Y), teslarati.com, reuters.com (estimated savings function)