Tesla wants to produce 500,000 cars per year at German plant

FRANKFURT — Tesla plans to build 500,000 electric vehicles a year at its new factory on the outskirts of Berlin, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported on Wednesday. Last month, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk announced that a site in Gruenheide, Brandenburg, had been chosen to build Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that Tesla will invest up to 4 billion euros (£3.44 billion) in the plant. Tesla’s Gigafactory will create 10,000 jobs, Bild said, citing planning documents to develop the site which is as large as 420 soccer pitches. Construction will start in 2020, the newspaper reported. Tesla declined to comment on the Bild article or on its expansion plans.

On the same day, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Tesla plans to increase prices of imported Model 3 vehicles in China in January.

Tesla plans to increase prices of imported Long Range and Performance Model 3 vehicles, which are currently priced at 439,900 yuan ($62,495.56) and 509,900 yuan, respectively.

The move comes as Tesla, which is building a car plant in Shanghai, aims to deliver China-made Model 3 sedans, which are priced at 355,800 yuan, to customers before Jan. 25 next year.

It was unclear by how much Tesla plans to increase the China prices. The sources declined to be named as they are not authorized to speak to media. Tesla declined to comment.

The electric vehicle maker began production in the Shanghai factory in October on a trial basis and aims to produce at least 1,000 Model 3 cars a week by the end of this year. The plant’s mass production schedule is crucial for Tesla’s hopes of raising its annual production rate to 500,000 vehicles by the end of this year.

The $2 billion factory, Tesla’s first car manufacturing site outside the United States, is the centerpiece of its ambitions to boost sales in the world’s biggest auto market and avoid higher import tariffs imposed on U.S.-made cars.