China's top 10 auto industry stories, trends during 2018

Tesla localizing on its own

Tesla Inc became the first international carmaker to localize production without a local partner in July, when it reached a deal with the Shanghai authorities to build a wholly owned plant in the city. The agreement came after China's announcement to remove the equity cap for the new energy car sector starting in 2018. The US carmaker secured a roughly 865,000-square-meter site in the suburban Lingang Area in Shanghai to build a plant that is expected to start partial production in 2019. The plant, with a designed annual capacity of 500,000 units, will produce the Model 3 sedan and the upcoming Model Y crossover in China, with the vehicles to be sold in China only.