Seriously Working On The Country Of The Bamboo Curtain, Tesla Wants To Make Chinese Electric Cars

Ilustrasi Tesla. (Unsplash / David von Diemar)

JAKARTA - Automotive manufacturer Tesla is taking plans to expand its business in China. This is known from Tesla's efforts to find a design director for their design studio in Shanghai or Beijing.

The goal of this electric car manufacturer is clear, to be able to design and produce an electric car that suits Chinese consumers. This effort is known to have been going on for the last four months.

"They (Tesla) are looking for candidates with twenty years of experience or more who understand the tastes of Chinese consumers. At the same time, can bridge the gap between China and the United States," a source told Reuters.

The head of Tesla's Global Design, Franz von Holzhausen, himself is said to have interviewed a number of candidates. However, when confirmed about this, he did not give an answer.

Early last year, Tesla boss Elon Musk had expressed his idea of opening a factory and design in China to produce original Chinese electric cars and marketed throughout the world.

"Something that would be really cool, to make Chinese designs and engineering to really design a genuine Chinese car, for the whole world to consume. I think it's very interesting," Musk said.

The source said that after recruiting the design director, Tesla will recruit a team of directors, which is likely to number around 20 people, including designers plus modelers who help change the design randering.

"They want to provide a vehicle design that is more biased towards China, with all that (Tesla) has done here, set up factories and sell lots of vehicles. The goal is for Tesla China to be independent," added the source.

To note, China is the largest automotive market in the world in general. As well, the largest in terms of sales of electric vehicles with sales volume reached 1.5 million units of vehicles last year. Or, Tesla's second largest market after the United States.

Last year, Tesla had global sales figures of 450 thousand vehicles and 145 thousand vehicles in China. This year, Tesla targets to be able to sell 500 thousand electric vehicles.