Tesla completes expansion plans to boost production capacity at Gigafactory Shanghai
US electric car manufacturing giant Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has completed an expansion project at its Gigafactory Shanghai, which will boost production capacity, allowing the company to produce 22,000 units of Model 3 and Model Y cars per week at the factory during its peak.
While Tesla hasn’t yet made an official announcement, the latest was revealed in a statement from the Environmental Information Release Platform of Shanghai Enterprises and Institutions.
Back in November last year, the electric vehicle-making giant first pledged to invest 1.2 billion yuan (US$170 million) to expand its production capacity at the Shanghai factory.
Tesla also said it will invest 85 million yuan (US$12.1 million) of the total US$1.2 billion in environmental protection, making up almost 8% of that total.
The company has looked at expanding substantially in China for some time now, which will generate more local jobs.
Tesla’s expansion plans would involve employing 4,000 more people at the Shanghai factory, bringing the total number of workers at the Giga factory to 19,000.
The latest upgrades trump its previous capacity, but the company has said it will need to test it first before it can deliver electric vehicles at full capacity.
Tesla will test the production lines for the upgrade from 19 September until 30 November.
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The latest project expands Gigafactory Shanghai’s production capabilities, with Tesla aiming for it to become the largest in the world – producing 1.2 million electric vehicles a year.
In the company’s financial report for the second quarter of 2022, the annualised production capacity of Gigafactory Shanghai exceeded 750,000 vehicles, which was greater than the second biggest, Tesla’s California factory, which has an annualised production capacity close to 650,000 vehicles.
Despite skepticism from the public in its early days, Gigafactory Shanghai has surprised consumers as buyers of the new Tesla Model Ys didn’t notice any changes or differences compared to production at other gigafactories across the globe.
Tesla founder and chief executive officer Elon Musk has stated in the past that Gigafactory Shanghai is its most productive electric vehicle factory across the globe.
The factory has manufactured up to 3,000 electric vehicles per day at full capacity and hopes by the end of 2022 to be at an annualised production run rate of 5,000 cars per day.
Recently, Gigafactory Shanghai celebrated its 1 millionth electric vehicle release for the company at the plant, bringing the total EVs produced across all plants to 3 million, showing the prominence of its Chinese factory which has been open for just five years.