But there may well be light at the end of the tunnel for Tesla because according to Chinese reports the outfit is about to build a factory in the Shanghai district which will churn out as many as half a million cars a year.

Website Knews – a media site which has connections to the Chinese government - said the factory will help Tesla avoid tariffs imposed by China in a trade war initiated by the current US president, Donald Trump.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is in Shanghai today as part of the factory announcement, and later this week will visit Beijing later this week.

The news will infuriate the US President if he catches a whiff of it as he prepares to journey to the United Kingdom for a slap up black-tie burger-based meal at modest countryside cottage Blenheim (pictured, courtesy De Facto), towards the end of the week.

Currently Tesla has a car manufacturing unit in Fremont as well as its battery factory in Nevada.