Tesla just broke ground on a new factory in China

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong.
(Image credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Tesla broke ground Monday on its Shanghai Gigafactory as part of the electric-car maker's plan to localize production of vehicles to be sold in the world's biggest auto market, The Associated Press reports. The factory, Tesla's first outside the U.S., will start production in China of its Model 3 and a planned crossover by the end of the year, CEO Elon Musk tweeted. "Affordable cars must be made on same continent as customers," Musk wrote on Twitter ahead of a ceremony at the plant site, where he joined the city's mayor and other local government officials. The Gigafactory is China's first wholly foreign-owned car plant. It reflects China's shift toward opening its car market even as it faces a trade war with the U.S., Reuters reports.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.