(Yicai Global) April 10 -- US electric vehicle giant Tesla said it will build a Megapack energy storage battery factory in Shanghai.

Tesla inked the deal with Lingang Special Area, a special economic space in the city's free trade zone, to build the megafactory there, the Texas-based company announced yesterday. Construction will begin in the third quarter of this year, and the plant will become operational in the second quarter of 2024, it noted. 

The plant will produce 10,000 Megapacks a year, equal to about 40 gigawatt hours of energy storage, Tesla added, noting that it will sell the products globally.It will be Tesla's second plant of this scale in Shanghai, after its EV gigafactory, and will become only the firm’s second Megapack factory worldwide.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk will reportedly visit China sometime this week, including a stop at the firm's Shanghai gigafactory. Tesla declined to comment on the reports.

Lingang Special Area has a relatively complete new energy industrial chain, including advanced energy storage firms from the lithium battery materials and energy storage battery sectors, and the Shanghai government is working hard to improve industrial planning and policies to attract key enterprises and major projects to the area.

Tesla has installed over 16 GWh of its Megapack products globally, aiming to increase the figure to 100 GWh this year, company insiders noted during the company’s annual investor day held at its gigafactory in Austin, Texas recently.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev