Björn Wylezich – stock.adobe.com
According to Reuters, in a letter sent on Sunday 1 May to the local authorities in Shanghai Lingang Special Area, Tesla expressed its appreciation for their help in reopening Tesla Giga Shanghai and supporting more than 6,000 workers to return to work in a disinfected environment. In the letter, Tesla further mentioned that they are planning to build a new factory next to the existing plant in Shanghai, which will be used for the production of the Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
Why it matters
The launch of the new plant in Shanghai is poised to add an annual capacity of 450,000 cars, with 1 million units of annual production in total, making Giga Shanghai the world’s largest vehicle export hub, according to Tesla’s letter.
After the reopening in Shanghai last month, Tesla Giga Shanghai had resumed over 80% of its production along with other companies, according to Hongtao Zhang, the chief engineer of the Shanghai Economics and Information Technology Commission.
Context
According to Zhang, Shanghai created a whitelist to help 3,742 listed companies resume production along with their supply chain to minimize the impact of the ongoing lockdown. According to Global Times, the listed companies, including Tesla, fall into the sectors of automobile manufacturing, equipment manufacturing, and biomedicine. By April 19, after weeks of lockdown due to a COVID-19 outbreak, Tesla welcomed about 8,000 workers back to the Shanghai plant.
