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Giga Shanghai churned out 10,757 vehicles in April, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Photo: AP

Tesla ships first electric cars overseas since lockdown halted Shanghai production, as domestic sales dwindle to a trickle

  • Some 4,767 EVs built at the Gigafactory 3 left for Slovenia on Wednesday, according to Jiefang Daily
  • The plant suspended production between March 28 and April 18 as Shanghai doubled down on curbs to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant
Tesla
Tesla’s Shanghai factory has sent its first shipment overseas since it resumed production on April 19 after a 22-day hiatus, as the US carmaker tries to make up lost ground against Chinese rivals who jumped ahead during lockdown.
Some 4,767 electric cars built at the Gigafactory 3 left Yangshan Deep-Water Port on Wednesday, bound for the port of Koper in Slovenia, according to Jiefang Daily. The state-owned newspaper cited data from local customs authorities.
The outbound shipment was sent after Tesla, the runaway leader in China’s premium electric vehicle (EV) segment, delivered just 1,512 units to mainland Chinese customers in April – 960 Model Ys and 552 Model 3s.

That was a mere 2 per cent of its sales in the previous month, before Shanghai went into lockdown, forcing thousands of manufacturers to down tools.

Giga Shanghai will send another shipment of 4,100 EVs abroad on Friday, Jiefang Daily cited customs officials as saying. The volume of exports is on the high side, suggesting Tesla may be attempting to compensate for the recent slump in domestic deliveries and production levels.

05:59

How Covid shut down Shanghai

How Covid shut down Shanghai
“The role of the Shanghai plant as Tesla’s export hub will remain, although a production halt caused it to lose about 50,000 units in production,” said Phate Zhang, founder of Shanghai-based technology portal CnEVpost. “When production returns to normal after a lifting of lockdown in Shanghai, thousands of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles will be exported each month.”

The Gigafactory 3, also known as Giga Shanghai, suspended production between March 28 and April 18 as Shanghai, the epicentre of the mainland’s latest Covid-19 outbreak, doubled down on pandemic curbs to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant.

The factory restarted production on April 19, three days after the Shanghai government published a “white list” allowing 666 key manufacturers to operate under a so-called closed loop system – workers essentially sleeping on site to avoid contact with outsiders.

Giga Shanghai churned out 10,757 vehicles in April, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The factory was only able to run a single shift initially because of a shortage of components, which limited output to about 1,000 vehicles a day – about half the plant’s normal daily output.

Tesla has dominated the mainland’s premium EV segment since Giga Shanghai became operational at the end of 2019.

The lockdown in Shanghai benefited Tesla’s three Chinese rivals – Xpeng, Nio and Li Auto. Their deliveries beat the US giant for the first time since January 2020, even as their own sales declined because of a strained supply chain.

Shanghai-based Nio’s deliveries declined by half to a six-month low of 5,074 vehicles in April after it halted assembly in the Anhui provincial capital of Hefei for five days, as Covid-19 quarantines in Shang­hai, Jiangsu and Jilin disrupted its supply chain.
Li Auto, headquartered in Beijing, handed 4,167 electric vehicles to buyers, 62.3 per cent fewer than in March.

Guangzhou’s Xpeng delivered 9,002 electric cars last month, 41.6 per cent fewer than a month earlier.

Giga Shanghai said before the lockdown that it aimed to ship 300,000 vehicles to foreign markets including Japan and Germany this year after it delivered 163,000 units to customers outside the mainland in 2021.

The Shanghai factory reported a total output of 484,130 vehicles in 2021, just over half of its global deliveries.

Early this week, logistics issues arising from the lockdown caused Giga Shanghai to suspend part of its operations.

Shanghai has yet to unveil a time frame for lifting the citywide lockdown that started on April 1.

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