Tesla Pays Off $1.4 Billion Loan in China Ahead of Schedule, US Headquarters to be Moved to Austin
Twitter user “JPR007” tweeted on October 4 that Tesla had repaid its loan in China in full. The user pointed out that Tesla’s balance sheet in the second quarter of 2021 no longer showed the loan of $1.4 billion USD or any part thereof and had been completely removed from the site. The removal of this line item means that all restrictions on Tesla related to these loans have ended.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk subsequently commented on the news via his Twitter feed: “Tesla always pays its debts,” which indirectly confirmed the news.
Tesla received this loan at the end of 2019. It is reported that the loan obtained by the company at that time was to be mainly used to repay Tesla’s existing debts, expand Tesla’s Shanghai factory and support its business development in China.
In addition, Tesla held its annual general meeting of shareholders at the super factory in Austin, Texas on Thursday. CEO Elon Musk praised Shanghai’s super factory for its “amazing vehicle quality and operational efficiency”.
At the shareholders’ meeting, Musk said Tesla’s headquarters was officially going to be moved from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas. “The space of the Bay Area is limited,” Musk said, “but this does not mean that Tesla will give up California. Tesla will continue to expand in California.”
Musk once again mentioned the shortage of spare parts. He said that “Tesla is not only plagued by the shortage of chips, but also in a state of short supply of various parts.”
“Tesla has had to raise car prices slightly due to supply shortages, but hopefully this is temporary.” He also stressed that Tesla needs more batteries, including batteries from suppliers, and more batteries from the company itself.
When asked about the mass production of the 4680 battery, Musk said that the 4680 battery may not start production in Texas this year, but the Fremont factory is accelerating its production. He pointed out that the Fremont plant itself is a large battery factory with a capacity of 10 GWh. “It takes more time to achieve mass production than to build a factory,” Musk said. “Taking Shanghai Gigafactory as an example, it took 11 months to build, but it took 12 months to achieve mass production.”
Supply chain issues also affected the listing of Semi and Cybertruck. Musk added that even if Tesla starts producing Semi and Cybertruck now, there will be no mass production anyway due to supply chain problems. He predicted that the shortage of parts will be solved in 2023, and Cybertruck and Semi will start mass production in 2023.
