Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, May 30 (TMTPOST) — Multinational electric vehicle maker Tesla’s manufacturing plant in Shanghai has ramped up its weekly production back to nearly 70% of the pre-pandemic level, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Affected by the Covid-19 resurgence in Shanghai, Tesla’s Gigafactory in the city had to suspend operation temporarily on March 28. Tesla’s Shanghai plant resumed operation on April 19.

After the resumption of production, Tesla’s Shanghai factory has been operating in a closed-loop model, where workers work and live within the manufactory plant compound without leaving the premise. The Shanghai plant started to have two production shifts since last week.

Sources said that the Shanghai plant plans to further increase its production capacity this week. Tesla has not responded to the request for comment on the news report.

An internal memo shows that Tesla has been working to increase the daily production output of its Shanghai plant to 2,600 units (pre-pandemic level) since last Tuesday. Previously, Tesla produced around 1000 vehicles a day.

Statistics from CPCA show that since resuming production on April 19 Tesla’s Shanghai plant had produced 10,757 electric vehicles by late April. The company sold 1,512 cars during the period, registering the lowest sales record since April 2020. In comparison, Tesla China sold 65,814 cars in March.

In 2021, new energy vehicle sales reached 6.23 million units across the globe, registering year-on-year growth of 118% with a market penetration rate of 7%.

New energy vehicle sales from the Chinese market accounted for 53% of the global sales, according to statistics from CPCA. The Chinese market contributed 61% of the global electric vehicle sales.

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk praised the Chinese electric vehicle market on social media. He tweeted on Sunday that China is a leader in electric vehicle and renewable energy generation.