Electric car plant faces impact from China’s intensifying Covid lockdowns
Tesla has stopped most of its production at its Shanghai plant owing to difficulties acquiring parts of its electric vehicles. This challenge is the most recent in a series of hurdles for the factory, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
According to the memo, the plant intended to build less than two hundred Tesla vehicles on May 10, much fewer than the almost 1,200 units it has been manufacturing daily since shortly after it resumed operations on April 19 after a 22-day closure.
Two sources conversant with the matter had earlier said that supply issues had made the factory halt production on May 9. Shanghai is in its sixth week of a worsening Covid-19 lockdown that has tested the manufacturers’ ability to operate amid tough restrictions on the movement of materials and people.
Tesla had planned as late as last week to rapidly increase output to pre-pandemic levels by next week. It was not instantly clear when the latest supply issues would be solved, said the sources, who declined to be identified since the production plans are private. Tesla failed to immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tesla April Sales
On Tuesday, China Passenger Car Association was scheduled to announce April sales reports for Tesla, China’s second-largest EV maker after BYD. Another automotive association said last week that it predicted overall sales in China had dropped by 48% in April as zero-Covid lockdowns put the brakes on spending, shut factories, and limited traffic to showrooms.
Aptiv, the main supplier of Tesla’s wire harness, ceased shipping from a Shanghai plant that supplies General Motors and Tesla after Covid-19 infections were found among its workers, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Buy Crypto NowTesla’s Shanghai plant, also referred to as the Gigafactory 3, builds the Model Y Crossover and Model 3 sedan for the Chinese market and export. Tesla partially reopened the Shanghai plant on April 19 after a 22-day closure prompted by the city’s Covid-19 lockdown measures.
Tesla has been seeking to grow output at its Shanghai plant to 2,600 cars each day from May 16, according to previous reports.
Shanghai authorities have enhanced a city-wide lockdown enforced more than a month ago on the commercial hub with a population of 25 million. This is a move that could intensify restrictions on movement throughout the month.
News of the production issues came on the same day Tesla reported the recall of 130,000 vehicles in the United States over an overheating issue that may trigger a malfunction of the center touchscreen display.
