Tesla Resumes Operations At Shanghai Plant In China
Beijing, April 20: US electric carmaker Tesla has resumed production at its plant in China’s Shanghai after the local authorities had issued a guideline on relaunching business operation following a massive COVID-19 outbreak in the city, a senior plant official said on Wednesday.
“We will ramp up the output over the next three to four days to resume one-shift production”, Song Gang, a director of manufacturing at the Tesla plant in Shanghai, said, as quoted by China Daily.
Production of car batteries and electrical equipment resumed on Tuesday, as about 8,000 workers returned to the factory on Sunday and Monday, according to the report.
Tesla’s suppliers of spare parts based in Shanghai, as well as neighboring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, have resumed supplies as well, Song said.
Last week, Tesla denied media reports that the production pause at the Shanghai plant due to the COVID-19 lockdown will continue until mid-May.
The plant in Shanghai was Tesla’s first outside the United States, with more than half of the electric vehicles produced there shipped to Europe and Asian countries last year.
China itself is one of Tesla’s key markets.
On March 28, Shanghai’s population of 25 million was put under lockdown in connection with a new outbreak of coronavirus cases. Originally planned to last until April 5, it was later extended indefinitely due to the high incidence of COVID-19 infections.
