Tesla To Open New Factory in China To Produce 450,000 Additional EVs A Year

In a letter sent to the local government in Shanghai, Tesla thanked for the support provided and at the same time started talks about the future of the company in Chinese territory.

Tesla had already confirmed, by the end of February this year, its intention to build a new Gigafactory next to the current facilities located in Shanghai. Now, through a letter issued by the California-Austin company to the local Chinese authorities - which was published by Reuters - it revealed certain information referring that Tesla basically hopes to continue being a benchmark in the world of electric car manufacturing in China.

Last year Giga Shanghai broke numerous records, and exceeded all forecasts for its production rates on multiple occasions. Elon Musk himself spoke on several occasions emphasizing his high level of surprise and enthusiasm for Giga Shanghai, which basically made up for practically half of the electric car deliveries made by Tesla around the world last year. With this the Chinese plant earned the affection and respect of the entire senior staff of the electric vehicle manufacturer, so it did not surprise anyone that Tesla admitted that it would build a second plant, right next to the current facilities.

In the aforementioned letter, Tesla thanked the local government for its collaboration in continuing the manufacturing work on Giga Shanghai, as a result of the high and severe restrictions that are taking place in China due to the COVID Pandemic, which actually caused the factory to cease production for a few days. The Shanghai Lingang Special Area authority saw fit to transport more than 6,000 workers to their workplace, thus creating a “closed circuit” and avoiding the spread of the virus; additionally, it also carried out successful factory disinfection tasks.

Precisely because of this clear show of good faith, help and collaboration provided by the local government to Tesla, the electric car company sent the aforementioned letter thanking the support received, but it also talked about the future plans that will be carried out on the new factory that will be located very close to the current one.

The text emphasized that the new factory will produce the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y, with an estimated annual capacity of around 450,000 electric vehicles, which would automatically, "de facto", make Shanghai "the largest electric vehicle center of exports in the world". This was stated by Tesla literally and explicitly in its official note sent to local authorities.

This annual production capacity would make Giga Shanghai alone to produce around one million Tesla electric cars per year, all in all. However, this is a capacity that was also estimated for the original Shanghai factory, which surprised locals and foreigners alike by increasing its capacity and reaching unimaginable levels. In the event that each of its factories actually mark a production of 500,000 vehicles, Tesla would reach around 1.5 and 2.5 million cars produced per year (that is, adding up all facilities), something that would once again confirm Tesla as the undisputed leader of electric vehicle production worldwide.

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.