More carmakers caught in headlights of VW engine-rigging scandal

More carmakers caught in headlights of VW engine-rigging scandal
Volkswagen has admitted it installed illegal software into 11 million 2.0 liter and 3.0 liter diesel engines worldwide (AFP Photo/Josh Edelson)

Volkswagen emissions scandal

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission
Analsyts say it is irresponsible to link the crash of a Ukraine International Airline Boeing 737-800 to the 737 MAX accidents (AFP Photo/INA FASSBENDER)

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 commercial jet.

QZ8501 (AirAsia)

Leaders see horror of French Alps crash as probe gathers pace

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

The Biro is a car and should be on the road, magistrates say

DutchNews, January 28, 2019

Photo: DutchNews.nl

A magistrate’s court in Amsterdam has ruled that the Biro, a small electric car, will no longer be classed as a vehicle for the disabled but as a moped, thereby banning it from the city’s cycle paths, the Parool reports. 

The decision was announced in a tweet by the infrastructure ministry, which, the paper says, had long been annoyed at the disabled label which effectively gave Biro drivers the right to drive and park anywhere they liked. 

The vehicle is not dissimilar to the Canta, which is meant for people with mobility problems. It is mainly popular with the well-heeled in the south of the city but its use has given rise to complaints about them blocking access to pavements. 

Pascal van den Noort of cycle advise bureau VeloMondial welcomed the news. ‘The decision means the Biro is really a car and as such it can no longer park on the pavement or drive on cycle paths. It is allowed on the roads and will have to pay for parking,’ he told the paper. 

Traffic alderman Sharon Dijksma said she hoped the decision would lead to better policing but that much remained unclear. ‘This is a magistrate’s court decision and it is not in writing so we don’t know what it is based on. We will talk to the public prosecutions department and the junior infrastructure minister,’ the paper quotes her as saying. 

The Biro ban is the latest move in an effort to establish a clear pecking order on the country’s cycle paths. In December last year Amsterdam announced that slower mopeds, known as a snorfiets in Dutch, will be banned from some of the city’s cycle lanes from next April and Utrecht is bringing in a similar ban at the end of the next year.

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Uber ups taxi driver age from 18 to 21 after Amsterdam accidents

DutchNews, January 21, 2019


Uber has agreed to raise the age for taxi drivers in the Netherlands from 18 to 21 following the involvement of company drivers in several fatal accidents in Amsterdam in recent weeks.

In addition, the agency will only accept drivers with at least a year’s experience, broadcaster AT5 said. Drivers under the age of 25 will also have to undergo a compulsory course in road safety, organised by the road safety organisation VVN. 

Last week, the VVN sounded the alarm about the accidents, telling the Telegraaf that Uber drivers should not be allowed on the roads unless its drivers conform to normal taxi regulations. 

‘What has happened is terrible,’ Uber Nederlands head Thijs Emondts told AT5. ‘We are convinced that the measures we are taking today will remove some of the concerns about safety.’ 

The company is also setting up a task force together with Amsterdam council officials to look at the accidents involving Uber drivers. In addition the company is looking at the option of controlling the taxi app which drivers use by speech recognition. 

AT5 points out that none of the fatal accidents involved young drivers. The company already operates a 21 age limit in other countries, including Belgium, Britain and Denmark.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Earth's Magnetic Field Is Up To Some Seriously Weird Stuff And No One Knows Why

Iflscience, Tom Hale, 11 Jan 2019

Computer simulation of the Earth’s magnetic field in a period of normal polarity. 
Dr. Gary A. Glalzmaier/Los Alamos National Laboratory/US Department of Energy

The planet’s magnetic field is up to mischief again and geologists are pretty dumbfounded.

Earth’s magnetic poles can wander several kilometers every year, however, the north pole's movement has become increasingly stranger in recent years. For reasons that are currently unclear, the magnetic north pole seems to be increasingly slipping away from Canada and towards Siberia at an erratic rate, according to a news report in Nature.

“The location of the north magnetic pole appears to be governed by two large-scale patches of magnetic field, one beneath Canada and one beneath Siberia,” Phil Livermore, a geomagnetist at the University of Leeds in the UK said at the latest American Geophysical Union meeting, according to Nature.

“The Siberian patch is winning the competition.”

Every five years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) maps out the Earth’s magnetic field in the World Magnetic Model (WMM). This was last published in 2015, with the next edition planned for 2020, but this freak behavior forced scientists to revise the map earlier than anticipated. Unfortunately, the revamped WMM was supposed to be released on January 15, but it's been postponed until at least January 30 due to the ongoing government shutdown.

Earth’s magnetic field is created by molten iron in its core swirling around through convection currents. It’s a fairly chaotic situation in there, resulting in a complex pattern of magnetism which can prove extremely difficult to model and predict. Just to make things even more complicated, an unusually punchy geomagnetic pulse occurred under South America in 2016, which is believed to have contributed to the recent unexpected changes.

However, it largely remains unclear why the magnetic field beneath Canada is appearing to weaken in such a strange way.

You might be wondering whether any of this matters. Well, the magnetic field is central to many forms of navigation. Most obviously, a compass relies on magnetic fields, but more advanced systems of navigation use the field as a bearing too. These currently anomalies shouldn’t be strong enough to completely screw this up, however, it’s most certainly something geologists need to keep on top of.

Indeed, it is possible for truly monstrous changes to the magnetic field to take place. Scientists know the Earth can undergo a phenomenon known as a “geomagnetic reversal", where these magnetic poles literally switch sides. The last time this happened was 781,000 years ago, but it's believed to have occurred every 20,000-30,000 years over the last 20 million years (although there have been exceptions).

Related Articles:


".... Years ago, this planet started to prepare for the shift. Dear ones, you have free choice, but when a wild-card started to emerge in the '80s and one of your larger governments ceased to exist, humanity turned a corner. That's when you started the shift, and that's when you disabled that which was going to be the Armageddon. If it had not been for this wild card [fall of the Soviet Union], your history would have been much different today, for that's when the planet started to shift.

I want to remind you of what happened about that same time. When I came to my partner 28 years ago, the first news I gave him can still be read in the first communication [Kryon Book One]. I told him there would be no Armageddon. In those years, this went against common prophecy and was difficult to believe for many. However, that's exactly what happened. Then I started to talk about magnetic service. Many have always wondered, "Why is Kryon of magnetic service?" It's because I brought with me what I call the grid group. This is a metaphor, and it's a linear idea so that you would understand it. It's a "group" that would literally shift the magnetic grid of the planet physically. In channelling, we told you that the magnetic north would shift - what you read on the compass would shift - because the magnetics of the planet had to be adjusted to create the physics that would be the adjusted bed of new consciousness. Twenty-eight years ago, no one saw the alliance between physics and consciousness, and those who would listen to the channelling made fun of it. They didn't understand. Today, there is an entire study of physics varying with consciousness and consciousness varying with physics. There's not just an alliance, but a partnership where one affects the other.

We told you before, "You come from the stuff of the stars." All that you are is part of all that is, so you're not an isolated being who walks the earth totally and completely apart from it. Instead, you're part of the chemistry of Earth, the physics of the Universe, and your planet has specific attributes that are just for you. You are part of a grand, planned system.

The magnetic grid had to physically move in order for the shift in consciousness that you were going to create. It did. By 2002, the grid group left and the new alignment was complete. Since you can measure the magnetic grid with a compass, you can validate all of this. Go back and check it out. Did the grid move or not? Oh, indeed it did - probably faster than anyone expected. It explains things that to this day people don't realize.

Do you remember a time when the cetaceans [whales] were beaching themselves regularly all over the planet? Hundreds of them with their families would seemingly wash up on the beach for no apparent reason. Well-meaning Humans would often gather and, with great effort, tow these giant creatures back out to sea, only to watch the whales go in a circle, take their bearings, and head right back into the beach! That's because whales navigate with something called magnetite, a built-in compass in their brains. The grid had moved so much that some of the migration routes that the whales used for decades changed so much in their headings that it sent them into the beaches instead of going safely along the coast, almost like a GPS system that was giving bad directions.

Did you notice that that whole episode of planet-wide beaching of whales stopped a while ago? Now they don't do it often, since they have recalibrated the migration routes to the new magnetics. Also, the magnetic shift stopped moving to the point it had before, and an entire generation of whales relearned the paths with new headings. I'm just giving you this to show you that what I'm telling you has credibility.

The shift was for you, dear ones. The physics of the planet had to shift for new consciousness to begin. We've talked about the field, and my partner spoke of it today. It is beginning to increase. The field is physics that puts together harmonious energies, and one of them is the attributes of high consciousness. You may have seen physical explanations and displays of the field in the past, but I just told you you're related to all this physics. That means that this physics is going to be your ally in a stronger way than ever before. That's two things, but there's actually more.

When it comes to the things that are sacred, some are beginning to be seen more. People all over the earth are starting to be far more receptive to new ideas of who they are, and are getting out of old paradigms they were taught. It's happening all over the planet.

Now, dear ones, you're not seeing these things on the news, because they are not being reported anywhere. This slow growth in perception and paradigm shift represents non-events, not the typical newsworthy items of drama and death. Sociologists will eventually see and report this, and history will record it also. These are the things that slowly change personally for Humans.

I sit in a theatre in Israel with old souls who have come to hear this information, who know who they are, and who believe in the esoteric teaching that says, "God is inside each Human." It's a spiritual axiom that states that the doctrine of behavior is inside, the prophets of the present and past are inside, and that all of the information about the return of the great prophets has already happened! Dear ones, they are all in the grid, and part of new consciousness." ..."



“… (2) The second thing the melting ice caps give you is about ecology. I'll give you this prediction in a moment. There is a Human 3D paradigm that says everything gets "used" and then goes away. But nature doesn't work that way, and our prediction is going to go against everything you have been told. I'm going to give you a parable and the prediction in a moment, but before that, I'm going to give you the explanation of the birds and the fish.

In the last few weeks, fish have been washing up dead in certain lakes by the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Birds have been falling from the sky. I'm going to make a statement way in advance of what science is going to tell you. All of it can be traced to the water cycle - all of it. It's always about the weather, a cycle of weather you've not seen before. Do you remember a few years ago when whales were beaching themselves? Did you notice that this attribute stopped? But while they were beaching themselves every year, many Human Beings were in fear, saying, "It's the end of the world. They're committing suicide."

The whales beached themselves because the magnetics of the earth shifted so greatly that their navigational system [the magnetite in their biology, which is their migration compass] steered them right into the land. The land didn't move; the magnetics did. Therefore, you might say their internal inherited migration map was flawed. The reason it's not happening now is because the calves, the generation beyond the one that beached themselves, figured it out and rewrote the maps. Nature [Gaia] does this. So the next generation didn't repeat it. Instead, it realigned itself to the migratory lay lines and now whales don't beach themselves nearly as often.

The magnetics of the planet continue to shift and the birds are unaware. Like the whales, many of the birds have migrated themselves right into a high place in the atmosphere, which pummeled them to death by freezing rain and hail. Then they fall from the sky. It's the weather cycle. Will they continue to do this? Some will, for awhile, and then they will figure it out and recalibrate. That's what nature does.

You might say, "Well, nature's way is severe." It is not severe. It is a positive learning system that allows generations of birds to be around next time. The few deaths allow for the many to continue their life cycle and their lineage on the earth.

I want you to analyze the fish that have washed up. Let science reveal this as well. I want you to analyze the fish. They have something in common. They're all juveniles. And why is that? What do you know about the water cycle? What do you know about cold water and the life cycle of certain fish and their habits of reproduction? I will tell you the layers of water are changing in temperature and that is going to change the life cycle of the oceans and lakes. The juvenile fish are the most susceptible to death by becoming too cold, especially the ones of the kind that washed up dead. By the tens of thousands, the cold killed them. It is the water cycle. Will it continue? For awhile, until they acclimate, until they recalibrate for the cold - and they will. Nature does that.  ….“



“… The Physics of It: A Review

Now for some physics, and I'll call it spiritual physics so it's not too complicated. In 1993, we gave you a book called The End Times. In this book, we made some statements. We talked about the magnetic grid of the earth, and we told you that it had to be there for Human life to exist - and it does. At the time, science didn't agree, but now many are seeing it. We went on to give you the esoterics of it, what my partner calls the woo-woo part. Your DNA, a multidimensional molecule, has within it everything that the Universe knows. It carries your Akashic Record, all of your lifetimes, all of your spiritual purpose, your spiritual being and your karma. Everything is in your DNA. This will never be proven, since it's a spiritual attribute. The DNA creates a field and it's called the Merkabah (a Hebrew word).

We also told you that the magnetic grid of the earth, a multidimensional energy, transfers certain things to your DNA on a day-by-day basis. The grid then becomes a major energy transfer system. That should have connected the dots for some of those who were paying attention - for if the grid changes, dear ones, you do, too. I told you the grid would change more in 10 years than it had in 100, and it did. You can measure your magnetic grid's movement with a compass. Between 1993 and 2002, it moved greatly, more than in any other time in modern Human history. We said this would be, and so it was. Our grid group left in 2002, as we told you we would.

Again, those paying attention should have known something was happening. I also told you within those initial transmissions back then that you would have no Armageddon, and you did not. Also, that there would be no World War III, and there wasn't. In the face of all the prophecy that told you differently, we told you there was a potential for Human Beings to pass the marker, survive, and start a new energy on the planet. We told you this would be the start of peace on Earth, and this is where you sit today. All of those years ago, we told you about the potential of where you sit today, listening to this message, and asking what might be next. So I'll label the channel right now: The Energy of the Future.

The Energy of the Future

Last week, I gave you a channelling of what to expect within the next three years. The message tonight will talk to you about the energies that are going to be manifested beyond that and some of the changes to expect and why they are taking place. You may want to listen to this channel a number of times to put it together, for there are reviews and new information.

So before we begin, what have we established?

Number One: Locked into the Human body via your DNA is brilliance and mastery, working at approximately 34 percent.

Number Two: The magnetic grid of the planet postures everything to do with your DNA. It also has much to do with what you call Human nature, what you want and what you've created. It seems static, never changing, and has been seen as "the way it is". However, we will call it the temporary lock on DNA. You see, when your Human consciousness and spiritual maturity starts to move in the next years, your DNA will start to change. This has nothing to do with chemistry, but everything to do with energy stored within it, and rewriting the data. New energies will unlock certain parts that have been locked, some of them being the very parts that I've just told you about at the beginning of this channelling - the things that are puzzling regarding healing and the Akash.  …”



Image provided by Nasa's Goddard
Space Flight Centre shows an artist's
 rendering of how a gamma ray burst
occurs. Photograph: AP 22 Nov 2013



"... Magnetics: Always a Player in The Shift

Many things are happening with the planet at the moment. The magnetics are changing as well. The magnetics of the solar system and the sun in particular, have an influence on your weather. How many sun spots have you seen lately? What do you think about the correlation of a sun that has very few, with your earth climate?  When can you remember that in your lifetime? What does it mean? I will tell you, dear Human Beings, that it's all related to what's happening on the earth. You may not understand the correlation, but I will tell you there is a profound one. What if [astronomy hint coming next], what if sun spots were created by gravitational and other interdimensional forces caused by the orbiting planets? Has there even been a correlation made between sun spots and the positions of the planets? Too weird? The invitation is there to see the correlations.

The sun is the fulcrum of the interdimensional gravitational pull attributes of the planets around it. There is information that is interdimensional – call it a gravitational patterning, if you wish – which the sun generates every moment of the day. As the planets push and pull on the fulcrum of the solar system [effect the sun through gravity], they affect the sun's attitude. These patterns are unique every day, and they intersect the magnetic field of the earth as they are blasted from the Sun in what you would call the solar wind.

The solar wind is a magnetic heliosphere, and has very multidimensional properties. This magnetic wind strikes the earth, intersecting with the magnetic field, and you can see it! You call it the Aurora Borealis. It's one giant magnetic field [the sun] intersecting another [the earth]. Science calls this intersecting phenomena inductance. In that intersecting energy, there is a transference of the informative patterning of the sun [at that moment] to the magnetic grid of the earth. Now, it's the magnetic grid of the planet that you sit in. All of life does.

Now we give you information we've given you before: The Merkabah. That is to say, your DNA imprint - the field around you - receives the magnetic grid's sun information, and the instructions within that field are passed right to the DNA, which is also magnetic. I have just given you the magnetic transmission chain that you think is esoteric. It's not. It's hard science. But to think that the interdimensional, magnetic and gravitational attributes of the solar system are going to your DNA is very esoteric. Some call it astrology. The truth is that it's for humanity, and also for Gaia! For remember that it is the earth that is part of the magnetic chain of information to your cellular structure [the Magnetic Grid]. It tells it when to do what it does. It's all related. So how related are you to Gaia? How much do you address this consciousness? ..."

“… Akashic Acuity

So we have established that you are moving into this new radiation, and we have established that it intersects the sun. The sun blasts your magnetic field with it (via the solar wind) and the magnetic field talks to your DNA. Suddenly, there is the potential some of your DNA is being unlocked. The attributes of unlocking Akashic acuity will help you to remember who you've been. Now, with this remembrance comes energy - not about who you were, but rather it gives you the energy of what you did. I don't mean physically; I mean energetically and mentally. Old souls carry with them experience. When you look into the eyes of a child, you're going to see wisdom just waiting to break out. Dear ones, these children are different. They are not going to go through what you did! They have a whole new set of issues, and most of their issues are trying to navigate the old issues you create for them!

There's something we brought up in a former channelling called the wisdom factor. Now, the wisdom factor is caused by Akashic acuity. After living Human life over and over, you start remembering the wisdom that you have gained through these past lifetimes. You don't necessarily remember who you were, but rather the fact that you were at all and the experiences you had. Imagine a child coming into the planet knowing how to read? Imagine a child coming into the planet knowing not to touch something hot? Where did it come from? You're going to see more of this, and a feeling of "been there, done that".

Akashic acuity is remembrance of experience during past lifetimes. As the child grows, that remembrance becomes pure wisdom. As the child starts to awaken and the pineal opens, something else happens. The grid starts talking to the child through the DNA, and in the grid is also the information from the time capsules we spoke about in past channellings. The time capsules start feeding the planet with increased wisdom and knowledge. You don't have to reincarnate to awaken even further! Akashic acuity means suddenly Humans know more than other children have in the past - much more.

Fast Tracking

This is the plan, and it's a fast-track system, an energy system for planetary ascension. It's going to take a long time to implement, dear ones, but it's beginning right now. You're going to see marginal evidence of this beginning to happen in 2015, 2016, 2017. You're going to see it slightly in many places. These energies take a long time to mature, and they're not all going to happen fast and instantaneous. Some of you are going to be convinced that the world is going through a dark place and you're all going with it. This is because you don't see the changes for what they are, and you don't understand what is really happening. We've said it before, that when you shine a lot of light in a dark place, the things that were always in the dark object. That's what you're seeing now, and you'll see more of it. These dark things were always there, but they just didn't have the light on them that you're placing on them now.  …”

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Sidestepping trade war, Musk breaks ground on Tesla Shanghai plant

Yahoo – AFP, Dan Martin, 7 January 2019

The plant will eventually have an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles,
Tesla says

Tesla boss Elon Musk presided Monday over the ground-breaking for a Shanghai factory that will allow the electric-car manufacturer to dodge the China-US tariff crossfire and sell directly to the world's biggest market for "green" vehicles.

The plant in a Shanghai suburb is Musk's biggest overseas move yet and will eventually have an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, Tesla says, dramatically increasing the California-based company's output.

"China is becoming the global leader in electric vehicle adoption, and it is a market that is critical to Tesla's mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy," Musk said, according to a statement released by the manufacturer.

Musk had hinted recently at an upcoming Shanghai trip to break ground for the plant but Monday's event was not publicly announced until the Tesla CEO broke the news in a series of tweets earlier in the day.

In typically iconoclastic style, the 47-year-old Musk changed his Twitter profile picture around the time of the ceremony to one showing his face with an exaggerated handlebar moustache drawn on it.

Tesla boss Elon Musk (L with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong) said China is becoming
the global leader in electric vehicle adoption

The Shanghai government later posted photos on social media showing Musk and officials from Tesla and the city on a large stage at a launch ceremony at the site, located on Shanghai's distant outskirts.

No investment figures were given but the cost of the project has been estimated by analysts at up to $5 billion.

The Shanghai venture comes as US companies face pressure from President Donald Trump to keep manufacturing jobs at home, and as Beijing and Washington wage a trade spat that has seen both sides levy tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of products.

Slowing down

Analysts say production in China would allow Tesla to side-step such measures, which have already caused a spike in the price of the cars the company now imports to the Chinese market.

Elon Musk said Tesla's Shanghai plant would suppply China with 'affordable 
versions' of its Model 3

But construction of the plant -- the subject of stop-start negotiations between Tesla and Shanghai for well over a year -- gets under way just as the outlook for China's consumer market has turned worrisome.

Apple sparked global alarm over the prospects for the world's second-largest economy last week when it cut its revenue forecast, citing slowing demand in China and the trade war.

Domestic and foreign automakers have been racing to grab shares of China's electric-vehicle sector -- already the world's biggest and expected to continue to grow as the Chinese government pushes clean technologies.

But the pace of growth is expected to slow along with China's economy.

The Shanghai factory will be Tesla's first production line outside the United States.

Musk tweeted earlier Monday that Tesla was "aiming to finish initial construction this summer, start Model 3 production end of year & reach high-volume production next year".

A US-made Tesla Model 3 now starts at around $50,000 but Elon Musk says he 
aims to get that down to $35,000

The Shanghai plant would supply the "Greater China region" with "affordable versions" of the Tesla Model 3 -- the carmaker's first mid-price, mass-market vehicle -- and its planned Model Y, Musk tweeted.

The Model S, Model X and "higher cost versions" of the 3 and Y would continue to be made in the United States for the global market, including China, he added.

Despite its relative affordability compared to other Tesla models, the price of a US-made Model 3 now starts at about $50,000, but Musk has said he aims to get that down to $35,000. He provided no price figures for China-made cars.

China typically requires foreign automakers to forge joint ventures with domestic firms when establishing manufacturing plants, which means sharing profits and technology with local partners.

But Tesla has said its Shanghai plant will be "wholly-owned" by the company.