Tesla China may not be at full capacity yet, but its vehicle export activities are already hitting their pace. Not long after the electric vehicle maker sent over a batch of Model 3 and Model Y to Europe, thousands of new vehicles were sighted being loaded onto a cargo ship to begin their journey to a port in Belgium.
Videos of this past Sunday’s shipment revealed that the exported vehicles numbered over 4,000, and they were comprised of both Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers. The vehicles left China through the port of Shanghai. Tesla’s official Twitter account lauded Tesla China’s hard work in a posr.
The fact that Tesla China is already able to ship vehicles to foreign territories is quite impressive. Giga Shanghai, after all, is still operating with only one shift of employees. Tesla China is looking to ramp its production capacity in Giga Shanghai by adding another shift of workers.
Previous reports have pointed to Giga Shanghai’s second shift starting this week. However, an internal memo reportedly viewed by Reuters revealed that these plans had been moved to at least next week, May 23. With another shift of workers, Giga Shanghai is expected to hit a daily output of about 2,600 vehicles.
During a press briefing, an official at Shanghai’s new Lingang area stated that Tesla’s electric vehicle plant is currently operating at about 45% of its capacity. This is slightly lower than fellow carmaker SAIC, whose plant was already up to about 50% of its initial capacity.
Citing a Tesla insider from Giga Shanghai, Chinese media outlets had stated that the electric vehicle production facility had a capacity of almost 20,000 vehicles per week before China implemented its strict Covid lockdowns. Even such impressive numbers, however, are still expected to be improved as Tesla optimizes its operations further.
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