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US electric vehicle maker Tesla plans to extend its reach in China because meeting a goal of producing 20 million vehicles each year by 2030 will require manufacturing capabilities on every continent, said the company’s Chairman Robyn Denholm.
“We’re building factories around the world,” Denholm said after an address to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday. “Our view is the world is going to electric vehicles and to batteries that are lithium-ion based and we need to be in all of the major markets around the world.”
When asked whether she had concerns about strategic competition between the world’s top two economies, she said that “Markets around the world are really important and so having manufacturing capability on each of the continents is important,” Denholm said, adding that Tesla is “building factories around the world.”
“Producing vehicles on continents is important because, again, when you’re setting a supply chain for the long term, you want those miles those cars travel before someone actually owns them to be the shortest possible, and that includes shipping and sea freight because all of those processes add to CO2 emissions,” she said.