Tesla Inc. aims to increase production at its Shanghai plant to 2,600 cars per day as of May 16he said in an internal memo seen by Reuters, as he seeks to restore production to levels before the city was locked down to control Covid-19.
Tesla, which now only has one shift, plans to add more at its Shanghai plant from May 16 to achieve the goal, the Reuters-reviewed memo showed.
That would raise weekly production to 16,900 vehicles based on Tesla’s stated work week on the premises, according to Reuters calculations. It would also represent a return to performance levels at the plant before Shanghai’s lockdown in late March forced the company to suspend work.
Tesla declined to immediately comment.
Before the lockdown, Tesla had worked three shifts at the Shanghai plant. The facility, which makes Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y, reopened on April 19 after a 22-day lockdown, the longest since the site opened in late 2019.
The confinement of Shanghai has also been a challenge for Tesla and other manufacturers due to the complexity of obtaining parts from suppliers.
As an example, Aptiv, which supplies wire harnesses for Tesla, was unable to resume production in mid-April and there were concerns this could have a chain effect on the automaker’s production, according to a person familiar with the matter. business.
However, Tesla managed to source wire harnesses from other suppliers and Aptiv got approval from authorities to resume production at the end of April, the source said. Aptiv said Friday that “all supplied wiring harnesses came from Aptiv.”
Electric vehicle (EV) sales had been booming in China before measures to contain the spread of Covid. Tesla’s sales in China rose 56% in the first quarter, while those of its biggest rival in China, BYD, grew fivefold.
Tesla assembled 55,462 vehicles in March at its Shanghai plant when it halted production for six days in the month, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.