Tesla production and sales in China appear to be quickly increasing after the Giga Shanghai plant was upgraded.
According to Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) quoted by Securities Times via CnEVPost, the preliminary data indicates that Tesla sold about 77,000 vehicles in August (retail sales in China and export).
* CPCA reports wholesale shipments, not registrations/customer deliveries.
If the estimated result is correct, it would be the second highest result, after 78,906 units achieved in June. The growth rate would be around 74% year-over-year.
Let’s recall that, according to the latest quarterly report, the plant can produce more than 750,000 Model 3/Model Y annually, but we guess that after the upgrade, it might be a significantly higher number.
An interesting thing is that the Chinese sources report that the plant is currently limited by parts supply rather than its own manufacturing capacity. It suggests a higher output in the future. Who knows, maybe at some point the company will be able to produce 100,000+ units per month.
Anyway, even at the current rate, estimated delivery times were drastically reduced, while the company celebrated a big milestone of 1 million BEVs produced in Shanghai.
On the other hand, Tesla has to increase production and sales, as the Chinese manufacturers are getting stronger and stronger. BYD is already producing significantly more plug-in electric cars (and a comparable number of all-electric cars) than Tesla, although using multiple smaller plants.
Because Tesla Giga Shanghai is Tesla’s export hub and most of the production from the first half of a quarter is for export, we can also assume that Tesla will have a pretty strong end of Q3 in Europe (potentially also Q4).
The cars are exported also to multiple other markets, including Australia and New Zealand, which recently received their first batches of Tesla Model Y.
Other Tesla factories are located in California, Texas and in Germany, but the two last ones are in the early ramp-up phase.
