Tesla pours more money into the Shanghai Gigafactory, aiming to produce 1 million electric cars a year

Tesla has just announced investment to expand production at the Gigafactory Shanghai, aiming to reach a capacity of 1 million electric vehicles per year at this plant.

Last year, CEO Elon Musk revealed that the Shanghai Gigafactory had surpassed the Fremont factory in terms of production capacity, and that Tesla had turned the Chinese factory into the new main export hub.

When Tesla first announced its plans for the Shanghai Gigafactory, it said it had no plans to export cars out of China, but that plan changed earlier this year after a massive increase in production.

The Shanghai factory started construction in December 2018 and production commenced in December 2019. Within just two years of starting production, it is now the largest electric vehicle factory. / has the highest productivity in the world. In 2021, this factory has produced 800,000 vehicles.

To further increase production, Tesla has submitted to the local city government new documents on the expansion of production, which involves increasing the workforce and adding and changing some equipment. However, the specific amount has yet to be announced.

In November last year, Tesla invested 200 million USD in this factory. At the time, Tesla had 15,000 employees at the Shanghai Gigafactory and planned to hire 4,000 more.

CATL, Tesla’s main battery supplier in China, is also building a battery factory near the Shanghai Gigafactory, which is expected to help speed up production.

Reference: Electrek