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Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

latimes.com

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Re: Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

#51

Post by [deleted] »

hrktb wrote: post #43
mkhalil wrote: post #18

Tesla should be very wary of the very real threat from corporate espionage in China. Brining a factory to China would allow a bad actor to really get into enterprise and create even better clones. Tesla wouldn't be able to keep up financially if Chinese manufactures built cars using Tesla research resources. side thought: Maybe TESLA turns into a research company that sells its IP to manufactures instead of actually…

I’m not into cars, sorry if it’s a stupid question. Does Tesla have that much valuable research ? I thought their manufacturing process came from external actors with experience in “legacy” car makers. Same with their batteries technology, didn’t big players like Panasonic intervene to bring their experience ? Regarding AI or software they don’t seem to be ahead of the other players either. From a distance, Tesla loo…

[deleted]

Re: Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

#52

Post by ryanmercer »

mkhalil wrote: post #18

Tesla should be very wary of the very real threat from corporate espionage in China. Brining a factory to China would allow a bad actor to really get into enterprise and create even better clones. Tesla wouldn't be able to keep up financially if Chinese manufactures built cars using Tesla research resources. side thought: Maybe TESLA turns into a research company that sells its IP to manufactures instead of actually…

Do you really think a Chinese company hasn't bought a used Tesla, put it in a cargo container, and shipped it back to dissect physically and to try and reverse engineer every last scrap of code they can get at?

Re: Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

#53

Post by ryanmercer »

tachyonbeam wrote: post #42
ricw wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm doubtful this will happen, based on what we've seen in the car industry in the past. Foreign car companies have had to build cars via Chinese joint ventures for decades, and as yet, not a single Chinese car company has seen any large success outside of China.

AFAIK, Chinese people themselves tend to prefer foreign cars, see them as higher quality status symbols.

Indeed. Some cultures in Asia are very "look at what I have", BMW and Mercedes do a lot of business over there to their equivalent of middle and upper classes.

Re: Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

#54

Post by mywittyname »

ricw wrote: post #32
mkhalil wrote: post #18

Tesla should be very wary of the very real threat from corporate espionage in China. Brining a factory to China would allow a bad actor to really get into enterprise and create even better clones. Tesla wouldn't be able to keep up financially if Chinese manufactures built cars using Tesla research resources. side thought: Maybe TESLA turns into a research company that sells its IP to manufactures instead of actually…

I'm doubtful this will happen, based on what we've seen in the car industry in the past. Foreign car companies have had to build cars via Chinese joint ventures for decades, and as yet, not a single Chinese car company has seen any large success outside of China.

Chinese companies don't need success outside of their domestic market to become powerhouses. American truck sales have subsidized Ford and Chevy's international divisions and, while the USDM is currently larger than the Chinese market, that won't always be the case. It's very likely that the manufacture who displaces VW as top car producer in the world will be primarily focused in the Chinese domestic market.

Additionally, the sheer number of copycat vehicles available from Chinese automakers suggests that distribution of IP and technology within the industry is pretty common. Be it from sharing, theft, or reverse engineering.

Re: Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

#55

Post by Fuckyourself »

pfortuny wrote: post #10

They seem to say so each year... Just from 2016: https://mashable.com/2016/06/24/tesla-factory-china-9-billio...

"Given those factors, the deal might not yet be set in stone, so to speak." hardly.

I mean the haven't "announced" anything. https://www.tesla.com/blog Do you see anything here? News publications as usual picking at straws.

Re: Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

#57

Post by mywittyname »

stcredzero wrote: post #28
api wrote: post #6

There's a story behind the story re: Tesla's scaling difficulties. America has lost its manufacturing base and with it the skill set to build large scale manufacturing easily. Tesla is going to China because that's where the expertise is.

America has lost its manufacturing base and with it the skill set to build large scale manufacturing easily. There's a reason why the NUMMI factories failed in the first place. The Hawthorne factories were located in the wrong place. The region's culture and human capital couldn't support the best efforts and know how of Toyota. It worked in Brazil, however. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI#Makeover

I love this excerpt from your link:

> the need Toyota had to start building cars in the United States, a requirement due to the possibility of import restrictions by the U.S. Congress.

So much irony.

Re: Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

#58

Post by AlexC04 »

mkhalil wrote: post #18

Tesla should be very wary of the very real threat from corporate espionage in China. Brining a factory to China would allow a bad actor to really get into enterprise and create even better clones. Tesla wouldn't be able to keep up financially if Chinese manufactures built cars using Tesla research resources. side thought: Maybe TESLA turns into a research company that sells its IP to manufactures instead of actually…

Aren't TESLA's patents all openly available anyways?

https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-y...

I mean maybe some research espionage might steal a technology from them before they patent it - but if they wait until AFTER then they can use it.

Re: Tesla plans China factory that can make 500,000 vehicles a year

#60

Post by JumpCrisscross »

pavs wrote: post #39
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what good a MOU in China is? Jack shit.

You do realize China is the second largest consumer market in the world? If MOU were jack shit, people wouldn't be doing business there. Many companies intentionally share their IP in order to do business in China.

> If MOU were jack shit, people wouldn't be doing business there

It’s a great place to do business. Their MoUs and LOIs are worth jack shit.

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