Why is it said that Shanghai has brought opportunities to Tesla?, Production of 1 million vehicles in 13 months
On September 6th, Tesla's Shanghai Superfactory produced its second million vehicles offline. The Shanghai factory has repeatedly broken records: from 0 to the millionth vehicle, it only took 33 months; From 1 million to 2 million, it only took an exaggerated 13 months.
Tesla is now the undisputed leader in global new energy vehicles, but without its Shanghai factory, all of this would be difficult to achieve. Before signing a contract with Shanghai to build a factory, Tesla was faced with huge capacity pressure. Musk tweeted, "The car business is hell." He personally lives in a factory to "oversee" car production, but the production capacity is far below expectations.
Tesla's Global Vice President Tao Lin said that Shanghai has brought opportunities to Tesla. In 2018, Tesla, as China's first foreign-owned vehicle manufacturing project, settled in Shanghai, marking the gradual lifting of restrictions on foreign ownership in the automotive industry. In January 2019, the Shanghai factory started construction. In December of that year, the first complete vehicle was taken offline, creating a "Tesla speed" of "starting construction, completing construction, and putting into operation in the same year".
The first phase of Tesla's factory covers an area of 157000 square meters, including 4 joint factories and surrounding production facilities. Due to its large size and complex construction, only 9 construction permits were issued. If we follow the traditional administrative approval approach, issuing each certificate means waiting for it. The approval department has explored and attempted a new mechanism of "filling gaps later", innovatively promising to issue a construction permit first, not allowing the project to be hindered by approval, and allowing a portion of non major indicator materials to be supplemented later on, while ensuring that the main materials for approval are complete and not affected. This kind of reform and innovation is the key to achieving Tesla's speed.
After the completion of the Shanghai factory, production capacity rapidly increased and expanded and upgraded multiple times. At the end of 2020, the production capacity reached 250000 vehicles; In 2021, the production capacity gradually climbed to 480000 vehicles, surpassing the Fremont factory in California, becoming Tesla's most productive factory.
Data shows that Tesla's wholesale sales in China in the first half of this year were 464000 vehicles. This means that more than 50% of Tesla's global delivery of 889000 electric vehicles in the first half of the year came from the Shanghai super factory, which became Tesla's global export center's "C position".
Tesla's completion and production in Shanghai have also brought another leap in the Shanghai automotive industry. Around Tesla, the Lingang New Area has actively introduced more than 200 supporting enterprises to settle down; Surrounding Suzhou, Ningbo, Nantong, Wuxi, Shaoxing, Taizhou, Nanjing, Changzhou and other places, numerous automotive parts companies have formed Tesla's "4-hour circle of friends".
Thanks to this, Tesla's Shanghai factory achieved a localization rate of over 95% for its components, significantly reducing production costs and ensuring the safety and stability of the supply chain. Local suppliers are raising their standards to meet international standards, becoming the core competitiveness of China's automotive industry for lane changing and overtaking. Large scale industrial clusters have also formed in various regions, injecting new vitality into the rapid development of the local economy. The intelligent new energy vehicle industry has become the first industry in Lingang with an annual output value exceeding 100 billion yuan, and currently has an annual output value exceeding 260 billion yuan.
As the production capacity of the Berlin and Texas factories ramps up, Tesla gradually builds a multi legged pattern. Industry insiders are concerned that in the complex and ever-changing international environment, Tesla will weaken the role positioning of its Shanghai factory and shift more production lines to North America and Europe. However, the stability of the Lingang factory, labor costs, and the reform and innovation environment of the Lingang New Area in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone still make Tesla optimistic about Shanghai.
Last year, the news of Tesla's investment in the construction of its second factory/phase two in Shanghai was confirmed by multiple parties. In April this year, Tesla's energy storage super factory project signed a contract and settled in Lingang. The factory will plan to produce Tesla's ultra large commercial energy storage batteries. Initially, it plans to produce 10000 commercial energy storage batteries annually, with a storage capacity of nearly 40GWh and a supply target covering the global market. The project is scheduled to start construction in the third quarter of this year and start production in the second quarter of next year.
Expanding investment on the ground fully demonstrates Musk's attitude. He has repeatedly praised the Shanghai factory and said at a shareholder meeting last year, "There may be friendly competition among factories in Texas, Berlin, and California, but Shanghai is difficult to surpass."
