Tesla delays from Shanghai and Giga Berlin

Tesla plans to stop most production at its Shanghai plant in the first two weeks of July to work on upgrading the site. Over in Europe, numerous deliveries of Model Y Performance from Giga Berlin have been postponed due to a technical problem.

In China, Reuters reports citing an internal memo that the upgrade currently being made to the Shanghai Gigafactory is to increase production to a new record high by the end of July. The goal is to produce 22,000 cars per week in Shanghai.

Tesla had originally planned to reach the 22,000 vehicles per week target by mid-May. This was supposed to be 8,000 Model 3s and 14,000 Model Ys but was prevented by the recent Covid 19 lockdown in Shanghai, which lasted almost two months. In the current expansion stage, production capacity is 17,000 units per week, according to Reuters.

It is not yet entirely clear what impact the renewed production stop in July will have on deliveries in the third quarter. Usually, Tesla exports the cars tproduced at Giga Shanghai in the first month of a quarter. This is so that the cars made that quarter can still be delivered in Europe by the end of that quarter, for example. After several weeks of shipping these cars can still arrive in the last month of the quarter.

Giga Berlin tries to make up lost time, but gets delayed there too

Since significantly fewer ships than usual brought Teslas from China to Europe after the lockdown-related production interruptions in Shanghai at the end of the second quarter, the Model Y Performance built at Giga Berlin in Grünheide played an important role in the usual final delivery spurt at the end of the quarter. However, in Europe over the weekend there were an increasing number of reports from customers that some of the planned deliveries from Giga Berlin had been cancelled – sometimes only after the customers had already turned up at the service centre on the agreed collection date.

The delayed deliveries from Giga Berlin appear to be due to a problem with the drive unit delivered from China. Although further details about the defect in the rear drive unit have not been revealed, it is said to be a “safety-relevant defect” that cannot be remedied by a software update. This was confirmed by several publications reporting that at least one customer in Norway was unable to drive their Tesla cars because of the problem and must now wait for new parts. There are also different reports about the extent of the delivery stop at Giga Berlin: In some cases, Tesla is said to have informed customers that no Model Ys are currently being delivered from Giga Berlin. In other cases, it is said that only some vehicles are affected. For most customers, the new delivery date was pushed back by about a month to the end of July; for others, dates will probably given in a few days.

First Model Y Long Range spotted from Giga Berlin

Despite the delayed deliveries and technical problems, it seems that Tesla is now also producing the Model Y Long Range at Giga Berlin in Grünheide. According to recent drone footage, Tesla has not only recently started producing on Saturdays, but also the current basic version in addition to the usual performance model. The images show vehicles without the spoiler lip on the boot lid, which is common on the performance version, and which also have the silver Gemini rims instead of the black 21-inchers. So far, all Model Y Long Range cars delivered in Europe have come from China – it is not yet clear whether the models now seen at Giga Berlin will also be delivered to customers. What is clear, is that only black and white Model Ys are currently coming from the German factory regardless of the drive system.

reuters.com, driveteslacanada.ca, insideevs.com, teslamag.de (in German)