Tesla to store electricity in China

Elon Musk's Tesla announced on Saturday that it has signed a contract in China to build its first large-scale storage factory for the Chinese power grid.

“Tesla has officially signed its first grid-based energy storage factory project in mainland China,” the electric vehicle specialist group, which also makes batteries and solar panels, said on its Weibo account.

The company said the facility, which is expected to be “the largest” of its kind in China, “will enable the adjustment of power grid resources and effectively address urban power supply pressures.”

According to Chinese financial newspaper Yicai, the contract signed by Tesla Shanghai, the city authorities of Shanghai China and China Kangfu International Leasing, provides for an investment of four billion yuan, or almost 485 million euros.

Tesla has set up a vehicle assembly line in Shanghai, which also produced more than 100 Megapacks in the first quarter of 2025 for export, notably to Europe.

A Megapack is a giant battery that can store more than 3.9 megawatt-hours of electricity, the equivalent of the average consumption of 3,600 homes for one hour, according to Tesla's website.

The group points out that these blocks, which resemble white containers, can be connected to each other infinitely, each with its own connectivity device.

At this stage, the American group claims to have installed the equivalent of more than 10 gigawatt-hours (GWh), namely in several American states such as Texas (81 units) and Alaska (37 units), as well as in Australia (212 units).

The signing of this contract takes place at a time of tense relations between Washington and Beijing, against the backdrop of the trade war initiated by the President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Tesla boss Elon Musk, a billionaire, was a close adviser and financier to Donald Trump during his campaign for the White House and, until the end of May, headed the Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose mission was to drastically reduce federal spending.

More recently, the relationship between Musk and Trump has deteriorated to such an extent that it has led to an open war between the two on their respective social networks.