According to the South China Morning Post, Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai is currently operating at less than half capacity despite being back online for almost a month now.
Daily output is currently at 1,200 Model 3 and Model Y units per day, said the publication — that’s around 45% of the factory’s full production capacity of 2,600 vehicles per day. These details were shared by Wu Xiaohua, deputy Communist Party secretary of the Lingang free-trade zone administration, on Tuesday.
Tesla was whitelisted to resume more than 80% production at the factory earlier this month, but output remains low. Not because the electric vehicle (EV) maker can’t have enough workers on duty to bring output back up to pre-lockdown levels, but because of a strained supply chain.
The American automaker can only build as many cars as it has the parts for. Tesla has been cleared to resume at full throttle, but the same may not be true for all of the company’s domestic suppliers. Even for those who have restarted operations, logistics are proving to be a challenge and deliveries now have more COVID-prevention measures tacked on in light of the recent outbreak.
Production at Giga Shanghai had been suspended since March 28 due to strict lockdowns imposed by the local government as China grappled with its largest COVID-19 outbreak in two years.
The factory’s assembly lines remained silent for 24 days (including another 2-day pause from mid-March). Given Giga Shanghai’s peak output of 2,600 units per day, the closure cost Tesla more than 50,000 vehicles.
Even when Tesla received the green light to restart production, the company was only allowed to bring back a fraction of workers under a “closed-loop” system, where employees lived on-site to avoid contact with outsiders.
Giga Shanghai had an output of only 10,757 units in April as a result, a fraction of its March output of 55,462. Tesla has only exported some 9,000 cars out of China, in two batches that left the port just last week no less, since resuming operations last month.
The EV pioneer had expected to fully restore production on May 16 after reinstating double shifts at the factory, said two executives at Tesla’s supply partners. An inadequate inventory of key components appears to have thrown a wrench in those plans, though.
Shanghai is preparing to relax the lockdown on June 1, in stages. However, Tesla won’t be able to raise production back up until the supply situation livens up.
