Tesla Inc is planning to design electric cars tailored to Chinese consumer tastes and is looking for a design director for the "full-function” studio it would put up either in Shanghai or Beijing.

The company's human resources managers and several headhunters have been on the lookout for “bi-cultural” candidates with at least 20 years of experience who are familiar with Chinese tastes and can bridge the gaps between the US and China.

Tesla’s global design chief Franz von Holzhausen has interviewed several candidates, though it was not clear how many potential designers had been approached.

The person chosen will lead a 20-strong team of designers plus modelers who will conceptualize the design of a car and come up with digital three-dimensional data models. These would be handed over to Tesla’s northern California-based vehicle engineers.

However, sources said Tesla's design studio plans are not fully developed, and it will likely wait for more clarity on strained US-China relations under new U. president Joe Biden before finalizing its decision.

China, Tesla’s No.2 market after the US, is the largest for all-electric vehicles. It is also the world’s biggest auto market, with sales volumes expected to reach roughly 1.5 million vehicles in 2021.

Tesla boss Elon Musk’s interest in developing cars in China is part of efforts to boost any’s global sales volume well past the 500,000-vehicle-a-year mark.

The US carmaker was 450 cars short of hitting the 500,000 sales mark in 2020.

Chinese consumers purchased around 145,000 Tesla vehicles last year, accounting for roughly a third of Tesla's global volumes.

Musk is confident that Tesla would be able to sell a $25,000 electric vehicle that’s also fully autonomous in China.