Tesla sparks fly for China ‘Gig’

Tesla on Wednesday said it has scooped up a 210-acre plot of land in China to build its next Gigafactory — digging itself deeper into the middle of the tariff battle between President Trump and China.

Earlier this month, Tesla said it was speeding up construction of the factory in Shanghai to offset a steep competitive disadvantage in China against other producers and even other imported cars, which it said are carrying a lower, 15 percent tariff.

“Tesla is now operating at a 55 percent to 60 percent cost disadvantage compared to the exact same car locally produced in China,” Tesla said in its quarterly report.

Chief Executive Elon Musk has said the goal is for the Chinese plant to produce 500,000 vehicles a year by the end of its first decade.

The electric-car maker spent $140 million on the Shanghai site, marking a key step toward the firm making cars locally in China for the fast-growing market.

“Securing this site in Shanghai is an important milestone for what will be our next advanced, sustainably developed manufacturing site,” Robin Ren, Tesla vice president of worldwide sales, said in a statement.

The purchase comes the same day that multiple outlets reported that Tesla’s VP of manufacturing, Gilbert Passin, had left the company for unspecified reasons. Passin had been with Tesla since 2010.

Musk also said he would buy $20 million in Tesla stock in the next open trading session. The CEO is already the largest stockholder, with $9 billion in shares.

Tesla said the purchase was “separate and apart from the settlement” encompassing Musk, Tesla and the SEC. Musk and Tesla late last month agreed to pay $20 million each to the federal regulator as part of a settlement of fraud charges.

Musk got into hot water in August when he misleadingly tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share — a pot joke meant to impress his girlfriend, according to the regulator.

Shares of Tesla finished the day down 1.7 percent, at $271.78.