Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory Resumes Work

Xinhua News Agency learned from Tesla China that the company’s Shanghai Gigafactory, which had been closed for nearly three weeks due to the pandemic, had resumed work on Tuesday. At present, Tesla is making every effort to coordinate the upstream and downstream industrial chains of parts to support the resumption of production.

According to sources, Tesla had already completed the preparation for resuming work on Monday evening and had begun producing battery motor modules by early morning Tuesday. At present, the whole vehicle assembly process is slowly recovering and about 8,000 employees’ work returned to normal.

In Tesla’s vehicle workshop, 1,600 personnel are working on the assembly lines. One insider disclosed to local media outlet, Yicai, saying that “This resumption of work is thanks to the support and coordination of the government. My colleagues are also very studious.” He stressed that ensuring workers’ safety in production is still the most important thing, and Tesla will promote the production in accordance with the epidemic prevention policy.

The factory’s production capacity will be restored to its best level in the next three or four days while the current parts inventory is expected to meet the production capacity after about one week. “Subsequent production capacity depends on the situation of supply chain,” Tesla sources said.

The Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory mainly produces the company’s Model 3 and Model Y and achieved nearly 500,000 units of annual output and nearly 10,000 units of weekly output in 2021.

According to sources, Tesla is actively promoting more than 100 suppliers to resume production with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and relevant departments in Shanghai, as well as further smoothing out of the logistics chain. Smooth vehicle manufacturing relies on normal logistics supported by efficient management.

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According to pandemic prevention rules, all employees in the factory need to get rapid antigen testing in the morning and nucleic acid tests in the evening. The production and office areas also need to be disinfected every day to ensure a safe work environment.