Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, its largest production base, has the potential to build humanoid robots in future, the company’s China president says, with its manufacturing efficiency and innovative capability seen as potential drivers of CEO Elon Musk’s hopes of commercialising the technology swiftly.

Allan Wang Hao said in a media briefing on Tuesday that the Shanghai Gigafactory could provide a “golden key” to the mass production of robots designed to resemble and move like humans.

“Like other Tesla factories, Giga Shanghai can shoulder important responsibilities in manufacturing all new products, including robots, to make our contributions to the company,” he said. “We are highly confident in welcoming the arrival of a new era of robots.”

It was the first time a Tesla executive publicly mentioned the potential use of the Shanghai factory for building humanoid robots, a new strategic focus that Musk has set for the company.

Musk had said Tesla’s edge in artificial intelligence and autonomous driving justified the company’s lofty stock market valuation. In January, Tesla said it was transforming itself into a physical AI firm from a hardware-centric business after reporting weak earnings and deliveries last year.