Report: Tesla Will Begin Shanghai Gigafactory Production This Month

The first phase of Tesla's latest factory is about to go online

[Image Credit: Jason Yang | YouTube, via screenshot]

Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory construction has been moving at lightspeed.

It was only in January of this year that Tesla broke ground on its Shanghai production facility. Just over nine months later, sources close to the matter say the Chinese factory aims to start production this month, according to a Reuters report.

From the point it does start production, Tesla aims to build 1,000 units of the Model 3 each week by the end of 2019. The $2 billion facility passed critical government approvals and is reportedly on schedule to come online in October. The Shanghai Gigafactory is China’s first foreign-owned car plant, as other automakers have historically had to partner with Chinese firms to produce cars in the country.

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Tesla plans to reach an annualized production goal of 500,000 vehicles by the end of the year. The company’s Chinese plant will be crucial to that goal, but there is still uncertainty surrounding actual year-end production figures. “We aim to start some production in October, but the actual production volume depends on many factors including car orders we received, performance of newly hired workers, supply chain and so on,” the source told Reuters. Their source spoke on the condition of anonymity, as they were not allowed to speak to the media.

The plant’s construction will continue in phases. According to the Reuters report, the next facilities will include battery pack production units, based on information from a company source and construction documents. Beyond that, work on a production workshop and energy center will be complete near the end of 2019.

As Tesla should release their quarterly figures soon, affirmative news concerning the Shanghai production plant should bolster the company’s performance in the market. A Teslarati article points to October 13 as the possible production start date, as that’s the last day the company is shipping the car to China.