GigaShanghai Finished Upgrades

Upgrades at Tesla’s GigaShanghai facility are complete, and the facility can now begin to ramp up its production goal of 2,200 vehicles per day.

In a recent statement published by the government of Shanghai, it was confirmed that the expansion of the factory was complete, and the new production lines would be tested from September 19th until November 30th.

The facility’s new upgrades are expected to allow for a steep ramp-up of production, but also of employment. It’s been estimated that Tesla would be able to hire more than 4,000 additional employees once the production lines kick into high gear.

Which is good news for everyone. Employment certainly helps the local economy, but GigaShanghai was one of the first examples of Tesla’s attempts to move supply chains to localised areas in and around their factories. Tesla China’s VP Grace Tao has mentioned that Giga Shanghai’s supply chain has been about 95% localised - so any increase in production at the factory would mean a bump to the supply chain’s business as well.

And that’s not even considering that GigaShanghai has been one of the most important factories in Tesla’s global efforts. In the effort to ramp up other Giga Factories in other locations, GigaShanghai has acted as Tesla’s main export hub to shore up the numbers.

But the facility has had a rough year, with a major shutdown of production occurring in late March, as China put some very strict COVID-fighting measures in place; and of course this most recent shutdown for upgrades, which started in early July and aimed to be complete around early August originally.

Despite these setbacks, GigaShanghai broke production records back in June; and Tesla is expecting that by the end of 2022, the factory should be able to produce almost 5000 vehicles daily.

If anyone can hit that mark, it’ll be the team at GigaShanghai.