Tesla opens new China research, data centers; will store data locally

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc said on Monday it had built a research center and a separate data center in Shanghai, where it manufactures Model 3 sedans and Model Y sport-utility vehicles.

The auto research and development center, Tesla's first outside the United States, employs engineers for software, electronics, materials and charging, it said in a statement.

The new data center for factory production will store Tesla's operation data locally. Last month, China's industry ministry published new draft measures that require companies to store important industry-related data locally.

During a wide-reaching global semiconductor chip shortage over the past months, Tesla's research team had tweaked some software programmes and made adjustments to ease the pressure brought by the chip shortage, according to the statement.

Tesla, however, did not say whether it uses fewer chips in its vehicles.

In May, Tesla said it had established a site in China to store car data in accordance with separate regulatory requirements. Data policy has become a key area Chinese regulators have targeted amid an ongoing crackdown on industry over the past year.

China's data security law builds on a 2017 cybersecurity law, which marked the first major set of rules governing the storage and transfer of data of Chinese origin.

(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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