On February 24, foreign media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Tesla plans to start building a new factory in Shanghai as soon as next month, which will be located near its existing production base in the Pudong New area near Hong Kong. "once the new plant is fully operational, Tesla's expanded plant in Shanghai, its main export hub, will be able to produce as many as 2 million cars a year."
Tesla insiders randomly denied the news.
It is understood that Tesla's Shanghai factory currently has an annual production capacity of more than 450000 vehicles. In 2021, the factory delivered a total of 484130 new cars, an increase of 235 percent over the same period last year, accounting for more than half of Tesla's global delivery of 936000 vehicles to 51.7 percent, of which more than 160000 were shipped to overseas markets to meet the needs of more than 10 countries, including Europe and Asia. This means that the Shanghai factory has become the most important capacity support for Tesla.
According to the latest data from the Federation of passengers, Tesla sold 59845 cars in China in January this year. Among them, 40499 were exported and 19346 were sold at home. According to this data, it is estimated that the sales of Chinese-made Tesla will exceed 700000 this year. Obviously, the current production capacity of Tesla's Shanghai factory has been difficult to meet the needs of the Chinese market. According to Tesla's official website, it will take another 3-4 months to order Model 3Universe Y.
In addition, Tesla has repeatedly predicted that sales will grow at an annual rate of 50 per cent in the next few years. According to this growth rate, Tesla's delivery volume in 2022 is about 1.4 million vehicles, and it is obvious that it is impossible to meet the demand by relying solely on existing production capacity. This is also an important reason why Musk plans to build a second factory in Asia.
At present, the location of the second factory in Asia is still up in the air. As far as the Asian market is concerned, markets such as Japan and South Korea have obvious advantages in terms of industrial support, as well as Tesla's battery suppliers Panasonic and LG Chemistry, which will help Tesla to further reduce costs. However, many people in the industry believe that in view of the fact that Tesla already has the benchmark of the Shanghai Super Factory in China, and that the Chinese market also has obvious advantages in terms of industrial chain and labor costs, and Tesla's demand in China also continues to grow, Tesla's second factory in Asia is still expected to continue to settle in China.
No matter where the second factory in Asia finally lands, the construction of another factory cannot be completed overnight. In the face of the growing market demand, for the Shanghai factory, which is already in production and undertakes the important task of export, the road of production expansion is imperative.
According to the information of the environmental information disclosure platform of Shanghai enterprises and institutions, Tesla released the EIA report on the first phase of Tesla super factory project (phase I)-spare parts production process improvement project (capacity adjustment).
Tesla said in the report that in order to meet the export needs of enterprises, Tesla Shanghai plans to build the project in the existing factory building on the first phase of the site, and plans to increase the production capacity of spare parts by increasing the number of production workshops, increasing the number of workers, and increasing the operating rate of equipment.
It is reported that Tesla plans to add new production processes such as power battery, electric drive assembly, and integrated forming of lower car body in the existing plant of Shanghai Super Factory to manufacture key parts of new energy vehicles, with an annual output of 260000 sets of pure electric vehicle power battery pack (battery management system integration), electric vehicle drive motor system, motor controller and so on.
