As Tesla inaugurates a $2 billion electric-car factory in China this month, a brief stroll around an upscale shopping district here shows the company already has plenty of local competition. Electric taxis with green license plates cruise past the luxury boutiques of West Nanjing Road, fresh off the assembly line of state-owned SAIC Motor Corp. Storefronts for Chinese carmakers Byton and WM Motor display sleek new battery-powered models. And across from a Tesla dealership sits a multistory sales outlet for Nio, a Chinese company that delivered 20,000 electric cars to buyers last year. “Tesla is definitely the pioneer of this field, but we are becoming stronger and stronger,” said Nio executive Izzy Zhu, sitting among customers in the dealership’s second-floor cafe. For all the success China has had conquering other industries, it never really mastered the art […]