Tesla Inc. is now focusing on the Chinese market and intends to further expand production in China. In this regard, Tesla Chairman Robyn Denholm (Robyn Denholm) said that to achieve the goal of producing 20 million cars per year by 2030, Tesla needs to have manufacturing capabilities on all continents.
▲ Delhomme
Following a speech at the National Press Club of Australia on Wednesday, DeHolm said, “We are building plants around the world. Our view is that the world is moving to electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries, and we need access to all major markets around the world.”
Following the Shanghai and California plants, Tesla also recently opened factories in Berlin, Germany and Texas, USA. Tesla’s China operations have returned to full production after undergoing production line upgrades and shaking off the effects of the outbreak on production. Tesla delivered 76,965 Chinese-made vehicles in August, down slightly from the record 7,8906 units in June.
Delhomme noted that it’s important to produce cars on every continent “because when you build a long-term supply chain, you want the cars to be shipped the shortest possible distance before they’re delivered to the owner, and that includes shipping and ocean freight because all of those processes add to CO2 emissions.”
According to Tesla, the company has set a goal of producing 20 million electric vehicles per year by 2030, well above the slightly less than 1 million it will produce in 2021. With the production line upgrade at the Shanghai plant alone, Tesla has doubled the plant’s annual capacity to about 1 million vehicles.
Speaking of China, DeHolm said, “Markets around the world are important, so it’s important to have manufacturing capacity on every continent.”
Tesla entered the Chinese market in 2018 with its Tesla Shanghai Superfactory, which broke ground in January 2019 as China’s first wholly foreign-owned full vehicle manufacturing project. The Shanghai plant was also completed at an impressive pace, making China Tesla’s most important market outside of the United States. However, Tesla has subsequently encountered a number of safety incidents and consumer advocacy.
