Tesla Gigafactory China has been working on starting production since it has halted due to rising COVID-19 cases in the locality. The factory production has been halted since March 28. It is because the government has launched a two-stage lockdown in the local areas- where Huangpu River is located.
Earlier on Sunday, it was known that the U.S. automaker aimed to resume production on Monday, citing two sources, as it expected to see its first batch of workers released from a lockdown the city imposed to combat a surge in COVID-19 cases. However, Monday production plans have now been canceled, according to the notice, which did not elaborate on the reasons or say when the company expected activity to resume.
Production at Tesla’s Shanghai factory, which produces cars for the China market and is also a crucial export hub, has been halted since March 28 after the government launched a two-stage lockdown that started in areas east of the city’s Huangpu River where the plant is located. Tesla had originally hoped to only halt operations for four days but canceled production plans for Friday and Saturday after the authorities extended tight movement restrictions in the eastern half of the city. Virtually all of Shanghai is currently under lockdown.
Production delays
The current stoppage marks one of the longest suspensions since the factory started production in late 2019. Tesla manufactures 6,000 Model 3 and 10,000 Model Y cars per week at its Shanghai factory. “This was an *exceptionally* difficult quarter due to supply chain interruptions and China zero-COVID policy,” its chief executive officer Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
Reuters reported earlier that Tesla plans to resume production in the factory southeast of downtown Shanghai from Monday as some workers begin to return from a lockdown. The eastern half of the mega Chinese city — where the Tesla factory is located — remains under tight movement restrictions despite the end of a four-day sweeping lockdown Friday morning.
The electric-vehicle maker told employees on Sunday that existing Covid restrictions remained in place, and asked staff to stay home and abide by community orders, according to an emailed company memo reviewed by Bloomberg. Tesla has extended the shutdown of its Gigafactory a few times in the past week as Shanghai puts its 25 million residents in some form of lockdown. The city will start a new round of mass testing on Monday, according to local authorities. More than 8,000 new Covid infections were reported in the city on Saturday, including 7,788 asymptomatic infections.
