After sealing the hole for 21 days, Tesla's Shanghai factory finally resumed production.
According to people familiar with the matter, Tesla's Shanghai factory has restarted production on April 18 and has formulated strict measures for employees in the closed-loop management system. According to the financial associated press on the 18th tesla factory actual investigation report, the factory gate in front of the day a number of logistics trucks are barreling water, the factory gate security personnel said that the factory is currently "preparing for the resumption of production materials."
On April 16, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology issued the "Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of the Epidemic in Shanghai Industrial Enterprises Resuming Work and Production (First Edition)", which lists 249 automobile-related enterprises, including Shanghai Volkswagen, SAIC-GM and Tesla. In addition, on the white list of key enterprises released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Tesla is listed in the list of discontinued enterprises that must resume work by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
On the day of the release of the list, people familiar with the matter revealed that Tesla has notified employees in Shanghai by phone to prepare for the resumption of work next week. Tesla will arrange buses to return employees who have been notified to the factory.
As of April 17 last year, Tesla's Shanghai factory shutdown will be up to three weeks. Tesla's Shanghai plant has produced about 44,100 fewer vehicles since the shutdown on March 28, accounting for about 14.5 percent of Tesla's production last quarter, based on about 2,100 cars produced per day.
Tesla's memo to employees shows that in the first three days after entering the factory, all employees carried out nucleic acid testing for three consecutive days, checked their body temperature twice a day, washed their hands four times a day, twice in the morning, and twice in the afternoon.
A memo tesla sent to employees shows that Tesla will provide each employee with a sleeping bag and mattress, and since there is no purpose-built dormitory, employees will be required to sleep in designated areas of the factory (sleeping on the floor), and there will be other space for showers, entertainment (both facilities are not yet completed) and dining.
A person familiar with the matter said that the company will provide employees with three meals and a daily allowance of about 400 yuan ($63), but the actual amount will depend on the position and level.
However, the Bloomberg investigation pointed out that only some employees enter the "closed-loop production" system, lasting between 10 and 20 days, tesla's Shanghai factory specific resumption plan will be adjusted according to the epidemic prevention policy, and it will take time to restore full production capacity.
In addition, Guo Mingxi, an analyst in related industries, pointed out that after the resumption of work, the tesla Shanghai factory production line will be a one-shift system, while before the Shanghai seal, Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory is a two-shift system, so the hourly workload will be reduced, and it is expected to drop from the original 80 to 85 to 40 to 50. If we take a rough estimate of about 40 to 50 JPH per hour, the current water level of Tesla's spare parts inventory in Shanghai is about 2.5 weeks, which is equivalent to about 25,000 to 30,000 electric vehicle shipments per month.
There are also industry insiders who worry that in closed-loop production, the supply of spare parts is also a problem; in the previous situation of large-scale production of supply chain manufacturers, it also takes a certain amount of time for parts to re-penetrate from upstream to suppliers to OEMs. Therefore, in a short period of time, Tesla's resumption of production capacity must be greatly reduced than before the sealing.
And such concerns are not only a problem for Tesla, but also reflect the entire Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai auto industry clusters, and countless first-, second-, third- and fourth-level suppliers have fallen silent in the epidemic. In the environment where the epidemic situation in Shanghai has not been alleviated and manufacturers collectively closed-loop production, the production capacity that cannot be exported to other places is still useless for foreign car companies that have stopped production due to supply chains.
In a word, although the resumption of production is the dawn of hope, the dilemma of China's automobile industry under the current epidemic is still difficult to break.