In what appears to us to be a continuing push to eventually become a Chinese company, Tesla will soon be producing its third generation electric Superchargers in China, in addition to vehicles it already manufactures there. 

The company said it’ll start producing the chargers in 2021, according to Reuters. It plans on investing $6.4 million in a new factory to help make its third generation of chargers, called the Supercharger V3.

It’s no surprise Musk is eager to expand in China, having called the country “smart” and “hard working” back in August of this year. The Tesla CEO – who has made himself billions off the back of U.S. government subsidies and the U.S. taxpayer – took to the “Daily Drive” podcast over the summer to make it clear exactly what country his allegiances lie with.

On the podcast, reported by CNBC, he called the people of China “smart” and “hard working” while at the same time calling U.S. citizens “entitled” and “complacent”. He specifically called out both New York and California, states whose taxpayers have literally funded Tesla’s business with massive tax breaks amounting to billions. 

When asked about China as an EV strategy leader worldwide, Musk responded:  “China rocks in my opinion. The energy in China is great. People there – there’s like a lot of smart, hard working people. And they’re really — they’re not entitled, they’re not complacent, whereas I see in the United States increasingly much more complacency and entitlement especially in places like the Bay Area, and L.A. and New York.”

 

He then compared the U.S. to losing sports teams: “When you’ve been winning for too long you sort of take things for granted. The United States, and especially like California and New York, you’ve been winning for too long. When you’ve been winning too long you take things for granted. So, just like some pro sports team they win a championship you know a bunch of times in a row, they get complacent and they start losing.”

Recall, Tesla secured $1.6 billion in loans from the Chinese government to help build its Shanghai factory, which helped the company resume normal operations post-Covid this year. 

Musk – apparently completely devoid of any humility to the amount of money he has received from the U.S. taxpayer – defended his company by saying over the summer it hadn’t received as much government support from the Chinese government as most competitors: “They have been supportive. But it would be weird if they were more supportive to a non-Chinese company. They’re not.”

Tesla’s total government assistance in the U.S. has surpassed $4.9 billion, according to CNBC. 

Recall, just weeks ago we also reported that Tesla’s Supercharger network in Australia now officially costed more than gas. The news came as a result of a “recent price increase” to use the Superchargers and – stop us if you’ve heard this one – “incorrect fuel figures on the Tesla website”. 

This, of course, puts an end to Tesla’s years long claims that recharging its vehicles offered savings versus traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. 

“According to Tesla the cost of charging a Tesla Model 3 is $7 per 100km compared with $12 for a rival petrol car,” WhichCar notes, before revealing the estimate uses “at least three incorrect figures”. The report disputes “how much electricity a Tesla Model 3 uses, the cost of electricity at a Tesla Supercharger and the price of petrol.”

It also notes Tesla’s increase for its Supercharger to 52 cents per kilowatt-hour. The article calculates this recharging “even the most efficient” Model 3 Standard Range would cost $9.78 per 100km using a Supercharger.