Standing in a vast field of muddy wasteland that wouldn’t look out of place in an apocalyptic movie scene, Elon Musk exuded his usual mix of optimism and self-deprecating humor.
Musk had trekked to these inhospitable outskirts of Shanghai on a rainy Monday to break ground on Tesla Inc.’s first car-production site outside the U.S. And in typical Musk fashion, he was big on promises and can-do attitude, flanked by a phalanx of Chinese officials who are keen backers of Tesla’s beachhead in China, the world’s largest automobile market.
