Despite?
I would say that the new factory would be associated with lower employment numbers, but in this case the new factory is probably just a fiction. Musk makes big announcements when he knows bad news is coming. It is part of his stock price manipulation strategy.
Tesla doesn’t make money by selling cars, Tesla makes money by selling stock.
If I were a Tesla investor, the China factory would make me very nervous. If Tesla starts producing in China, the Chinese will start stealing his technology from Day 1. Within ten years, the Chinese will be selling the same technology at half the cost.
This has only happened the last thousand times in a row, so it might not be fair to call it a pattern.
“the Chinese will start stealing his technology from Day 1. Within ten years, the Chinese will be selling the same technology at half the cost”
They may well have already stolen some of it. Chinese EV Car Co. NIO is no sleeper in design, just a matter of stealing someone’s superior battery technology.