Tesla to make 550,000 cars at Giga Shanghai in 2021

According to reports in the Chinese media, Tesla’s plans for the Shanghai plant are to produce 550,000 electric cars next year. The number of vehicles earmarked for export has also been revealed.

The 550,000 vehicles from Gigafactory 3 will be 300,000 Model 3 and 250,000 Model Y, according to the Chinese media outlet 36kr.com with reference to unnamed insiders. Production of the Model Y in China is scheduled to start in early 2021 at the latest.

There have recently been increasing signs that the production start of Tesla’s latest electric car was indeed imminent. Last week, Tesla’s Model Y was registered by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, although the separate production permit from the Chinese government is still pending.

Of these vehicles, Tesla is planning to make in Shanghai, 100,000 Model 3 and 10,000 Model Y are destined for export, according to the Chinese news site Wall Street CN. Model 3 exports to Europe have already been confirmed. What is not clear is where the 10,000 Model Y vehicles will be exported to. According to current plans for Europe, the electric car will only come from Giga-Berlin in Grünheide, Germany. It appears Tesla has changed its previous production policy regarding Model Y imports from China. Tesla has not commented on either the reports about their alleged production plans or export figures.

In Germany, construction of the European plant Giga-Berlin in Grünheide is progressing, although apparently not as quickly as planned. Slight delays are currently expected due to slow approval procedures. Tesla is currently working with provisional permits for individual construction phases since the final permit is not expected until December.

According to information from the German news outlet rbb24, Tesla applied for these interim approval permits in September. From 23 October, another 100 hectares of pine trees are to be cleared to make way for the plant’s paint shop. A spokesperson for the State Environmental Agency told rbb24 that the examination of the documents was still ongoing, saying that “the Agency was also taking into account many applications and comments from the discussion meeting”.

It remains to be seen how much the pending partial approval for the paint shop will delay the overall project. The first Model Y is scheduled to be built in Giga-Berlin in July 2021. From circles close to Tesla, rbb24 claims to have learned that the start of production is not at risk.

teslarati.com, 36kr.com, wallstreetcn.com (all three re. Shanghai), teslamag.de, rbb24.de (in German, Giga-Berlin)