Tesla said to close in on $145m plot for China plant

Tesla Inc is in the process of obtaining land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, as it pushes ahead with plans to set up production in China.

The automaker is the sole bidder for a plot of land with an auction price of around 1 billion yuan ($145 million), the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is not public. A decision by the Shanghai municipal government to allocate the land to Tesla could be made as soon as this month, they said.

In July, Tesla reached a preliminary agreement with the Shanghai authorities to build a factory that the electric-car pioneer said will eventually produce 500,000 battery-powered vehicles annually, more than what its lone US assembly plant has made.