Tesla will soon reportedly design cars that appeal to Chinese tastes

Tesla is on the lookout for “bi-cultural” designers as it looks to open a design studio in China.

The electric automaker has reportedly begun the interview process with candidates who have 20 or more years of experience and are familiar with Chinese tastes, Reuters reports.

The push in Tesla’s No. 2 market outside the United States comes as the company is gunning to push its global sales numbers well past the 500,000-vehicle-a-year mark, but will not be in full swing until Tesla has more clarity on strained US-China relations under the Biden administration, the report says.

“I think something that would be super cool would be … to create a China design and engineering centre to actually design an original car in China for worldwide consumption,” Tesla boss Elon Musk said at an event in Shanghai last year. “I think this would be very exciting.”

The ultimate plan is to create a “full-function studio” based in China which would not only help conceptualize the design of a future Tesla vehicle, but also come up with the final shape.

The Chinese designs would then be passed along to Tesla’s California-based vehicle engineers. Reuters sources also said that the team would likely be responsible for researching Chinese consumer tastes, as well as work with the company’s Shanghai gigafactory.

One of the “China-specific” models is likely to be the $25,000 Tesla that Musk promised at last year’s Battery Day event, which the CEO said would be ready within three years.

Shares of Tesla were down 3 percent Monday morning, but are up more than 15 percent since the beginning of 2021.

With Post wires