Tesla’s Shanghai Factory Just Had Its Best Month of 2026

Giga Shanghai workers mark Tesla’s 9 millionth vehicle in December 2025. Credit: Tesla Asia/X

Tesla’s Giga Shanghai wholesaled 95,366 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in September, its best month of 2026 so far, according to data released Friday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

That’s up 5% from 90,812 a year earlier and 10.7% from August’s 86,166. It’s also the factory’s highest monthly total since December 2025, when it wholesaled 97,171 vehicles.

Exports did much of the work, with 30,529 of September’s vehicles shipped out of China. That leaves about 64,800 cars for Chinese buyers, up nearly 30% from August.

For anyone new to these monthly reports, “wholesale” counts cars leaving the factory, whether they head to Tesla stores in China or onto ships bound for other countries. It isn’t the same as customer deliveries or registrations, which show up later and are counted differently.

Giga Shanghai built its first car in December 2019 and is Tesla’s only vehicle factory in Asia. It serves as the export hub for Asia-Pacific markets such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, and it also ships to Europe. Since this spring, it has supplied the Model 3s sold in Canada, under the quota deal that cut Canada’s tariff on China-built EVs to 6.1%.

Over the first nine months of 2026, Shanghai wholesaled 743,060 vehicles, up about 22.5% from the same stretch of 2025. Demand at home has been the softer side of that story, which helps explain why Tesla China extended its Model 3 and Model Y discounts to October 31.

With September in, Shanghai’s July-to-September wholesale total comes to 275,111 vehicles. Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles worldwide in Q3, beating the 461,974 analyst consensus, so Shanghai’s output was equal to more than half of that figure, even if the two numbers aren’t measured the same way.

The CPCA’s figures don’t show the split between Model 3 and Model Y, how many of the longer six-seat Model Y L are in the mix, or which countries the 30,529 exported cars were headed to. The association also labels its early monthly release as preliminary, so the numbers can still be revised when final data comes out. Tesla hasn’t commented on the September result.

Tesla reports third-quarter earnings on October 21, and analysts will likely want to know how long exports can keep carrying Shanghai while discounts prop up demand at home. For anyone in Canada waiting on a new Model 3, that busy Shanghai dock is where their car’s trip begins.