Tesla Gigafactory 3 has passed an important government inspection needed before it can start production, which is supposed to be imminent.
The automaker has been moving fast to get Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai ready for volume production by the end of the year.
CEO Elon Musk has been guiding a start of production in early Q4 2019, which would mean around October in just a few weeks.
As we recently reported, recent drone videos show that Tesla already completed the majority of the giant building’s exterior earlier this summer, but now the focus has been on setting up production inside the factory.
Over the last few months, we have seen a few leaked pictures from inside the factory that show Tesla is busy setting up production lines ahead of the start of Model 3 production.
Last month, Tesla Gigafactory 3 obtained an official government certificate in record time ahead of the start of production and now they are getting a second certification.
Beijing News reports (translated from Chinese):
On September 16, according to the official micro-signal news of the Lingang New Area Management Committee, the Lingang District Construction Project Management Service Center organized planning, construction, fire protection, lightning protection, archives and other professional inspection departments. On September 12th, the Tesla Gigafactory Project (Phase I) held the comprehensive acceptance site meeting of the Joint Plant 1. Zhu Xiaolu, Vice President of Tesla Global and President of Greater China, attended the meeting.
This certificate of “comprehensive acceptance” is reportedly needed to start production at the factory.
The publication reported that Tesla obtained it:
“According to the news, each professional line has checked and accepted the project site and verified the relevant construction materials on the site, and agreed to pass the acceptance.”
The government also refers to the current state of the factory as “phase 1”.
As we reported yesterday, the Tesla Gigafactory 3 building looks completed as per Tesla’s plans released earlier this year, but they have started grading a new area on the plot of land and started digging for what appears to be new foundations.
Based on this development and the fact that the government refers to the main building as “phase 1”, it could indicate that there’s a “phase 2” of Gigafactory 3 construction.
We previously speculated that Musk wanted battery production to also be included in the factory, but they had to put the project on the back burner and focus on car production in order to avoid the import tariffs. The phase 2 could be for future battery production.
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