On May 3, according to Reuters, Tesla China will build a second plant in Shanghai, which will increase the annual production capacity of 450,000 vehicles. It is understood that the news stemmed from Reuters seeing a thank-you letter written by Tesla to the Shanghai government. Tesla thanked Lingang officials for their support and disclosed that it would further expand its factory in Shanghai, saying in the letter that the company would build a new factory on land near the same area that is poised to increase annual production capacity of 450,000 vehicles, including the Model 3 and Model Y, as "the world's largest auto export hub."
For the news that Tesla will set up a second factory in Shanghai, some insiders said: There was relevant news earlier, if Tesla made it clear in the official exchange with Shanghai this time, it may mean that the establishment of the new factory is not far away. However, in response to the news that "Tesla has set up a second factory in Shanghai", Tesla China has not yet responded.
It is worth noting that tesla will set up a second factory in Shanghai, as early as February 24 this year, Reuters reported that according to two people familiar with the matter, Tesla plans to start building a new factory in Shanghai as early as March to more than double China's production capacity to meet the growing demand of China's automobile and export markets. At that time, Tesla insiders denied this news.
In fact, the news that Tesla will build a second factory in China was reported as early as the end of 2021. There is also a lot of news that the location of Tesla's second factory will be in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, Yibin City, Sichuan Province and other places. However, for this kind of news, Tesla's global vice president Tao Lin also posted a rumor on Weibo, saying: "Tesla is very honored to contribute to the development of China's new energy industry, and will continue to firmly increase investment in China." Recently, I have received many media inquiries about the second factory, and I cannot reply to them one by one. Respectfully, the current information on the Internet about the location of Tesla's second factory is not true. Thank you to all the friends who care about and support Tesla's development! ”
Of course, there has been no official response to whether Tesla will set up a second factory in Shanghai, but it is true that the Shanghai factory will increase production capacity. According to the environmental information disclosure platform of Shanghai enterprises and institutions, Tesla announced the environmental impact assessment report of the first phase of Tesla's gigafactory project (phase I) - parts production process improvement project (capacity adjustment) on February 22. Tesla said in the report that in order to meet the export needs of enterprises, Tesla Shanghai intends to build the project in the existing plant of the first phase of the plot, and intends to increase the production capacity of parts by increasing the production workshop, increasing the number of workers, and improving the equipment start-up rate.
According to relevant information, Tesla's Shanghai factory is Tesla's second super factory overseas, mainly producing two models, the Model 3 and the Model Y SUV. Relevant data show that tesla's Shanghai factory delivered 484,000 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 235% year-on-year, accounting for 51.7% of Tesla's total global deliveries. Among them, 321,000 units were retailed in China, and the remaining 163,000 units were mainly exported to Japan, Europe and other countries. In the Chinese market, the Model Y retails 169853 units in 2021 and the Model 3 retails 150,890 units. According to Tesla's official data, Tesla will deliver 936,000 vehicles worldwide in 2021, and the Shanghai factory will account for more than half of Tesla's global sales.
It is not difficult to see that the Shanghai factory is Tesla's "top pillar" in overseas markets, shouldering the burden of internal supply and export. In addition, from the sales volume announced by the Association, Tesla has been at the top of the new energy sales list, which also proves Tesla's popularity in the Chinese market. In addition, from the perspective of the production capacity of Tesla's Shanghai factory, in just over two years, the Shanghai factory has become one of Tesla's main sales factories, and the importance of the factory is self-evident.
Tesla CEO Musk has also said many times that Tesla's main goal this year is to expand production capacity. Although Tesla's Berlin factory and Texas factory have been put into operation, the two factories are still in the new factory, and if you want to quickly increase production capacity, the Shanghai factory may be the fastest choice to increase production capacity. For this year's annual delivery target, Tesla CEO Musk has said that Tesla's deliveries will increase by 50% this year. Taking Tesla's total sales of 936,000 in 2021, this means that Tesla needs to deliver 1.4 million new cars this year. It is understood that Tesla's Fremont factory in California has a production capacity of 600,000 vehicles, including 500,000 Model 3/Y, while the Shanghai factory has a production capacity of 450,000 units, both of which have recently been affected by the epidemic. However, Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory in Germany has been opened on March 22, and Tesla's Texas plant was officially put into production on April 7, US time, mainly producing Model Y models, with an annual output of up to 500,000 vehicles after full production, so roughly calculated, if there is no accident, Tesla may be able to achieve the annual target of 1.4 million vehicles as scheduled.