Shanghai Lingang Holdings Co said in a statement on late Thursday that it has never contacted Tesla Inc or showed willingness to cooperate with the U.S. electric-car maker on building a plant in China, and there has been no agreement reached between the two companies.
Lingang's statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange came after multiple news outlets reported that Tesla has reached an agreement to set up a manufacturing base in Shanghai's Lingang Special Economic Zone. Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter, that Tesla has signed a preliminary agreement with Shanghai to explore production in China.
Earlier media reports also suggested that Tesla was close to an agreement to produce vehicles in China for the first time, and the agreement with Shanghai would allow Tesla to build facilities in its Lingang development zone and could come as soon as this week.
It was not immediately clear if the Bloomberg report was suggesting that Tesla had reached an agreement with Lingang. It also remains unclear whether Lingang's denial of an agreement means that the U.S. electric-car maker would not set up a production center in China.
In response to news portal tech.qq.com late Thursday, Tesla said it is still discussing with the government of Shanghai about the possibility of setting up a plant to better serve for the Chinese market.
"Our China plan will become clearer by the end of this year as communicated previously. Meanwhile, we are assessing potential spots in the world to set up our plants in order to provide services to the global markets in a better way," the company said, according to the tech.qq.com report.
