July 11 (NBD) -- Tesla Inc on Tuesday inked the cooperation memorandum with Shanghai government to build its new auto plant with a designed annual capacity of 500,000 electric cars in Lingang Area, which will become Shanghai's largest-ever foreign-funded manufacturing project. 

The new gigafactory in Shanghai will conduct research and development, manufacturing, sales and other businesses. It would take about two years until the factory begins producing vehicles, and another two or three years before the plant is hitting its annual capacity of 500,000 units, Wall Street Journal reported, citing Tesla's spokesman. 

On May 10 this year, Tesla established its wholly-owned subsidiary in Shanghai via Tesla Motors HK Limited, and the Shanghai subsidiary became China's first foreign-owned automobile company since the country agreed to ease foreign ownership limits on joint-ventures.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn