Tesla , the American automaker, announced last Sunday that it will build a new huge factory in Shanghai, which will be dedicated to the manufacture of the company's energy storage batteries, which bear the name "Megapac".

Tesla said at the signing ceremony for the project in Shanghai that it is planned to start building the new factory in the third quarter of this year and launch production work in the second quarter of 2024.

The new plant will initially produce 10,000 units of Megapack batteries each year, which equates to about 40 gigawatt-hours of stored energy. The products will be sold all over the world.

The new factory will be located in the Lin-gang area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

The construction of the plant is expected to create another industrial park, valued at more than 100 billion yuan (14.6 billion US dollars), said Lu Yue, an official with the Lingang Special District Administration.

Zhuang Mudi, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government, said the project will help stimulate the development of new energy storage industry and the green and low-carbon transformation of Shanghai.

In January 2019, Tesla began construction of its Shanghai Gigafactory, becoming the first company to benefit from the new policy allowing foreign automakers to establish wholly-owned subsidiaries in China.

As Tesla's first large-scale plant outside the United States, the plant delivered 710,000 vehicles in 2022, up 48 percent from 2021. The plant has become Tesla's primary vehicle export hub, with electric vehicles selling well in Asia Pacific, Europe, and more. from regions.

Since 2019, Tesla has been increasing its investment in Lingang, expanding the production capacity of the Shanghai factory and building more facilities, including a supercharger manufacturing plant.

Tao Lin, vice president of Tesla, said that thanks to the superior business environment in Shanghai and Lingang Special District, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory has an industrial chain localization rate of more than 95 percent.