Tesla has announced that Gigafactory Shanghai has produced its 2 millionth electric vehicle – making it the most productive EV factory.
Gigafactory Shanghai is a significant success story for Tesla.
In 2021, CEO Elon Musk disclosed that Gigafactory Shanghai has now surpassed Fremont Factory in production capacity, and Tesla has made the Chinese factory its new main export hub.
That’s despite the factory being quite new.
The factory went from beginning construction in December 2018 to starting production in December 2019.
Within just two years of starting production, it became the biggest/most productive electric vehicle factory in the world by a wide margin.
In August of last year, Tesla announced that the factory produced its 1 millionth vehicle.
Now just 13 months later, the automaker announced that Gigafactory Shanghai has produced 2 million electric vehicles to date:
It took Tesla 33 months to build its first million EVs at Gigafactory Shanghai, but only 13 months to build the second million.
Song Gang, senior director of manufacturing at Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai, acknowledged that Tesla’s impressive production ramp at the factory is partly attributed to its location in Shanghai’s pilot free trade zone:
“The increase in Tesla’s production speed is inseparable from the superior business environment in Shanghai, especially the Lin-gang special area of the Shanghai pilot free trade zone.“
The news confirms that the factory is very close to an annual production capacity of 1 million vehicles, which is unheard of for a factory exclusively producing full-size battery-electric vehicles.
The factory is producing Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
There’s still room to grow, which Tesla is expected to do with the introduction of a next-generation vehicle designed in China.
The vehicle is expected to be cheaper and smaller than anything in the automaker’s current offering.