According to people familiar with the matter, plans to expand Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory have been delayed. Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory is the company’s first manufacturing plant in China and China’s first electric vehicle factory wholly owned by a foreign automaker. It is also the company’s third Gigafactory in the world. The factory currently produces the Model 3 and Model Y.
Since breaking ground in 2019, the facility has rapidly grown into one of the company’s most important. Today, the factory is Tesla’s largest by volume of vehicles and is the company’s main export hub.
At present, Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory has completed two phases of expansion and is estimated to be able to produce about 1 million vehicles per year. The factory was originally planned to start the third phase of expansion in mid-2023 to increase the annual production capacity of the factory to 2 million vehicles.
In addition to expanding the Shanghai Gigafactory, Tesla also plans to expand its Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. Foreign media reported that Tesla submitted an expansion application to the Texas licensing and regulatory department on January 9. The company plans to build 4 projects, some of which are planned to start construction within a few weeks.
Like other electric car companies, Tesla is facing slumping demand in China, the world’s largest auto market. In December 2022, foreign media reported that Tesla will extend the production reduction plan started in December last year to January 2023, following the reduction in production at the Shanghai Gigafactory in December last year.
Tesla’s leaked internal plan shows that its Shanghai Gigafactory will be in continuous production for 17 days from January 3 to January 19, 2023, and will suspend production from January 20 to January 31, 2023. The time is longer than the Lunar New Year holiday.
