From 'Made in China' to 'Designed in China:' Tesla Is Hiring Staff To Design Models In A New Local Research Center

California-based electric vehicles maker Tesla Inc. TSLA is opening a new design and research center in China, Reuters reported on Thursday.

What Happened

The Elon Musk-led company on Wednesday put out a notice on Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s TCEHY social media platform WeChat calling for designers and other staffs to join the new center and help the company make "Chinese-style" cars.

"In order to achieve a shift of ‘Made in China' to ‘Designed in China', Tesla's CEO Elon Musk has proposed a very cool thing - set up a design and research center in China," the notice read, according to Reuters' translation.

The notice called for those interested to make a design submission by February 1, but according to Reuters, it's not clear when the center will become operational.

Why It Matters

Tesla has been aggressively expanding in China. After opening its first manufacturing unit, the so-called "gigafactories," outside of the United States in Shanghai last year, the automaker began delivering the first car made at the plant, the Model 3, earlier this month.

Tesla also announced plans to start manufacturing its Model Y SUV at the Shanghai gigafactory.

Last Sunday, Musk suggested Tesla could roll out a new feature to make the vehicles "talk."

Price Action

Tesla's shares closed 3.61% lower at $518.50 on Wednesday. The shares added $1.25 in after-hours trading.

Photo Credit: Public domain photo via Wikimedia.