Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai makes 3,000 cars per week amid other factory shutdowns

Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai is reportedly making 3,000 electric cars per week amid Tesla having to shut down its other factories.

As of Monday, Tesla was forced to shut down production at Fremont factory in California, where the automaker has produced almost all its vehicles for the past decade.

The company started production at Gigafactory Shanghai in China late last year.

Tesla also had to shut down production briefly at the facility in February due to the Chinese New Year and then the coronavirus crisis in China.

The automaker had a production capacity of about 2,000 vehicles per week prior to the shutdown.

Now a new report from 乌瓦, a Youtuber who has been tracking progress at the factory through drone videos and interviews with employees and locals, states that Tesla is now capable of producing 3,000 cars per week at the plant:

Tesla’s Shanghai Super Factory currently has a production capacity of 3,000 units per week, which is a significant improvement over the 2,000 units per week before the resumption of work.

He posted a new drone video of Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai showing a lot of activity and a continuous stream of Model 3 vehicles coming out of the factory and being loaded on trucks:

This would be quite an achievement for Tesla and a boon to its production capacity since Fremont factory is currently not producing any vehicles.

3,000 cars per week would mean an annual production capacity of 150,000 cars, which was Tesla’s goal for the first phase of Gigafactory Shanghai.

Tesla has been moving into the second phase of the factory, which aims to add production capacity for 250,000 cars at Gigafactory Shanghai, along with battery packs and electric motor production lines.

The new drone video shows progress in the construction of the new buildings for phase 2:

We don’t have a clear timeline for phase 2, but considering that Tesla was able to go from a field to a production capacity of 150,000 cars in just over a year with phase 1, we expect phase 2 to be up and running fairly quickly.

Electrek’s Take

I am glad to see the progress at Gigafactory Shanghai.

Tesla had bad luck with the timing of the coronavirus hiring right when it launches Model Y, but when you think about it, they were also lucky that it happened right after they went from one to two production facilities, giving them more flexibility.

What I’d like to know now is whether they are able to sell those cars in China, as the country is still managing and recovering from the crisis.

If we are to believe China’s numbers, the situation is way better than in the US, but auto sales have still been hit hard in the market.