Tesla has started looking for 14 future employees for its Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, China. Job openings included architectural designer, engineers (civil, industrial, mechanical), and senior finance manager.
Most of the positions to be filled are senior level, requiring at least six years experience. The hiring came just a month after Elon Musk signed agreements with China for the $2 billion project.
The most common job description implied that Tesla is hiring ahead of actual project development. Most of the positions involve the development of "conceptual designs" for the Tesla gigafactory.
"Participate in all project phases, including conceptual designs, presentations, schematic design, design development, construction documents and production," Tesla wrote in its Careers page on its official website.
A WeChat recruitment ad for Tesla, first seen by Bloomberg, said the company is looking for more than a dozen engineers and machinists for its gigafactory.
"The 'Dreadnought' is about to sail. We are recruiting the first batch of sailors and looking forward to having you on board soon," Tesla said in the recruitment ad on WeChat. "Dreadnought" refers to the early 20th-century legendary British battleship.
China still holds Tesla's second-largest market by revenue. In 2017, the company recorded $2 billion in sales in China alone. The company sold $11.7 billion worth of cars worldwide.
The Business Times previously reported that Musk surprised investors when he said that building the Gigafactory 3 in China will only cost approximately $2 billion. This is way lower than what he spent in Gigafactory 1 in Nevada and Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo respectively. Musk said he would not be selling shares to fund construction of the Shanghai-based factory. Instead, he will be securing funds through local bank loans and investors.
Some analysts, however, doubted Musk could build the Tesla China gigafactory at less than half the cost of his previous spending. There may also be some challenges along the way, like getting approvals from the Chinese government. Furthermore, Musk has yet to consider the impact of the ongoing US-China trade war with his plans for Tesla's factory in China.
Tesla Gigafactory 3 is expected to produce 250,000 cars and battery packs in its first few years. Over time, Musk wants as much as 500,000 vehicles manufactured at the Shanghai facility.
Meanwhile, some Tesla vehicles underwent new highway safety tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. It found that Tesla Model S and Model 3 can hit a stationary object when the vehicles' cruise control was turned off, but with auto brake turned on. The Tesla vehicles stopped before hitting the stationary object when cruise control was turned on.
The Tesla Model 3 passed an active lane-keeping test while The Model S went over the lane once on curves and 12 times on hills.
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