U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Inc is betting heavily on the Chinese market, where the firm is facing tough competition, with a slew of operations, including building a Gigafactory and setting up dozens of companies.
The U.S. carmaker has set up 15 new companies and dozens of subsidiaries in the Chinese mainland, with the total registered capital amounting to a staggering $900 million, financial news website 36Kr reported on Thursday.
Those companies include Tesla (Shanghai) Co, which was registered in May 2018 with a capital of 4.67 billion yuan ($684.29 billion), according to 36Kr. The company is focused on the production of electric cars, parts and batteries.
Tesla on Monday broke ground on its Gigafactory in Shanghai, the company's first plant outside of the U.S., aiming to finish construction in the summer and start production by the end of the year.
On Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was in Shanghai for the groundbreaking, met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing, in a sign that China welcomes Tesla's operations in China.
During the meeting, Li congratulated Musk on the groundbreaking of the Shanghai factory, which the Chinese premier said is the first wholly owned foreign project since China lifted shareholding restrictions for new-energy vehicle (NEV) manufacturing, according to a statement on the central government's website.
Li also said that China welcomed more foreign companies to invest in the country.
Tesla's moves in Shanghai came at a time when the world's largest auto market had faced sharp declines in car sales and competition is increasing in the NEV sector, with a rising number of both domestic and foreign companies also poised to crowd the market.
