On April 22, Tesla celebrated the 10th anniversary of the delivery of the first Model S in Chinese mainland. In the past 10 years, Tesla has led fundamental changes in the automotive industry with its technology and product strength in the upstream and downstream of China's new energy industry.
Since 2014, the number of Tesla owners in China has increased from 15 to more than 1.7 million, and Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory has continued to export the "Chinese sample" of intelligent manufacturing to the world. At the same time, in the past decade, the number of new energy vehicles in China has jumped from 216,400 to more than 20 million. According to the data of the China Passenger Car Association, in the first two weeks of April 2024, the retail penetration rate of new energy in China's passenger car market has exceeded 50%.
Tesla continues to reshape the field of transportation and mobility with innovative technology. From electric vehicles, to energy storage devices, to artificial intelligence and robotics, Tesla's business territory has surpassed that of ordinary electric vehicle companies. Musk has announced that on August 8, Tesla will release the latest robotaxi, a robotaxis.
From 15 to more than 1.7 million, changing the lifestyle of Chinese car owners
On April 22, 2014, the first batch of Chinese car owners received their own Model S car keys from Elon Musk.
After the Model S, Tesla successively launched the Model X, Model 3, and Model Y, forming a full lineup of "S3XY" models covering sedans and SUVs. In the past 10 years, Tesla has continuously refreshed production and sales records at home and abroad.
When Tesla entered the Chinese market in 2014, it had only 15 owners. From 2014 to 2016, Tesla delivered a total of 21,200 vehicles in China, and by 2017, Tesla sold more than 20,000 vehicles in China, equivalent to the sum of the previous three years, entering a stage of rapid development. In 2019, Tesla sold about 50,000 vehicles in China, nearly tripled its sales in China to 148,000 units in 2020, becoming the best-selling electric vehicle in the Chinese market, and doubled to 320,700 units in 2021. From 2022 to 2023, Tesla's sales in the Chinese market will be 439,800 and 603,700 respectively, a year-on-year increase of 37.1% and 37.3%.
Today, Tesla has won the trust of more than 1.7 million consumers in China and more than 6 million car owners worldwide. Since 2019, Tesla has been the global pure electric vehicle sales champion for five consecutive years. In 2023, Tesla will continue to be the top spot in the global pure electric vehicle market with annual sales of more than 1.81 million units. Up to now, Tesla has built more than 11,000 super charging piles in Chinese mainland and more than 55,000 worldwide.
Ten years ago, when the global new energy vehicle industry was just starting, Tesla, as a pioneer in the industry, established a number of original models and subversively solved many technical problems. In 2014, Tesla opened more than 300 patents to the world for the core technology of electric vehicles.
Talent training in the field of new energy vehicles is also an important part of Tesla's development strategy. Since Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory was officially put into operation in 2019, it has accelerated the localization process of model styling design, engineering research and development, and intelligent network applications, and cultivated a large number of technical and management talents for China's new energy vehicle industry. From production and operation to R&D and innovation, 99.9% of the employees of Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory are Chinese, and a talent reserve of the whole industry chain has been established from front-line operators, to cutting-edge technical talents, to management talents in the new energy industry.
95% of the supply chain is localized, helping China build an intelligent manufacturing ecological chain
Behind Tesla's rapid growth and development, it is inseparable from the blessing of "China speed".
Since Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory was officially put into operation in 2019, relying on China's perfect supply chain system and first-class "Made in China" capabilities, it has become the world's most efficient vehicle factory, achieving an average of more than 30 seconds off the assembly line, and the Shanghai Gigafactory has become Tesla's main export center in the world, with a cumulative delivery volume of 947,000 vehicles in 2023, accounting for more than half of its global production capacity.
Shanghai Gigafactory concentrates on stamping, welding, painting and assembly four workshops, power battery and motor assembly workshop and a research and development center, actively communicate and cooperate with local enterprises, through the localization of parts and components, local development of new parts and capacity expansion, in a very short period of time to achieve the localization rate of parts and components of more than 95%, only Tesla signed more than 400 local first-class suppliers, more than 60 suppliers have entered Tesla's global supply chain system, to the world to export innovative practices of the "Chinese sample".
The Shanghai Gigafactory further contributes to the improvement of the intelligent manufacturing ecological chain, the upgrading of technology and the expansion of the scale of the mainland's intelligent manufacturing ecosystem. At present, in Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo, Nantong and other Yangtze River Delta regions, a whole ecological chain of new energy auto parts such as batteries, automotive chips, automatic driving systems, automotive interiors, and precision machining has been formed, forming a complete "safe, independent and controllable" industrial ecology.
Recently, Tesla announced that the first energy storage gigafactory outside the United States, the Shanghai Energy Storage Gigafactory, will start construction in May 2024 and complete mass production in the first quarter of 2025.