Southeastern Shanghai 'mud town' evolves into home of Tesla Gigafactory

SHANGHAI — Four years is usually just a brief moment in time, but Nicheng, once a little-known township in southeastern Shanghai, was propelled as if under the control of a fast-forward button, undergoing a tremendous and speedy transformation unseen in its history.

Nicheng — meaning "mud town "in English — takes its name from its geographic location. Adjacent to Hangzhou Bay, the town was formed by the accumulation of sediment carried by the Yangtze and Qiantang rivers.

About 200 years ago, local residents reclaimed the tidal flat, from which it got its name.

For decades, Nicheng was a neglected area with a poor transportation network and sluggish economic growth, until Jan 7, 2019, when deafeningly noisy machines used to construct Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory carved out a new chapter in its development.

"We knew from the beginning that the establishment of this project would bring great opportunities for the development of Nicheng," said Zhang Yinbiao, Party secretary of Nicheng.

In fact, before the Tesla project, a series of preparations had been made in Nicheng, which longed for a chance to take off.

In 2013, Nicheng was listed as one of the four major commercial centers in the southeastern part of Pudong.

Its location along the Shanghai-Luchaogang Expressway has also given it the privilege to develop a manufacturing chain.

The construction of Tesla's Shanghai plant — the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing enterprise in China — was completed in less than a year. It is Tesla's first Gigafactory outside the United States. The plant delivered 710,000 vehicles in 2022, a 48 percent increase from 2021, accounting for over half of Tesla's global delivery. The Shanghai plant has become Tesla's primary vehicle export hub, with electric cars selling well in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and other regions.

"The high efficiency of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory was supported by a sound business environment and industrial ecology in Shanghai. It is a demonstration of Shanghai's global competitiveness and ability to better allocate global resources," said Tian Xinmin, vice-dean at Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory has brought about considerable spillover effects.

According to the company, the localization rate of the industrial chain of the Gigafactory has exceeded 95 percent. Nicheng is among those that have benefited the most.

About 10 kilometers away from Tesla's Shanghai plant, numerous automated guided vehicles are running around at the futuristic workshop of Yanfeng International Seating Systems Co Ltd.

"Here, about 3,500 sets of car seats are rolled off the assembly line every day and delivered to Tesla and SAIC Motor factories not far away," Jia Tingwen, the head of the assembly workshop, told Xinhua as he kept a close eye on the fast-running production line.

The thriving automobile industry cluster in Nicheng has not only accelerated local industrial upgrading, but also become a big driver in improving the public transportation network and other supporting facilities in surrounding areas, providing better living and working conditions for local residents.

"We've set two goals for Nicheng this year, to drive industrial investment and tax revenues to over 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) and 3 billion yuan, respectively," Nicheng's Party secretary Zhang said.

Xinhua