Employees work at the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 20, 2020. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)
SHANGHAI, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The 2 millionth vehicle produced by Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai rolled off the assembly line on Wednesday, reaching a new milestone, the company said.
In January 2019, Tesla's Shanghai plant, the carmaker's first gigafactory outside the United States, began construction, and turned out the first vehicle in December of that year.
The Shanghai factory produced its first 1 million cars in over 30 months, while achieving its second 1 million vehicles in less than 13 months, according to the company.
"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," said Song Gang, senior director of manufacturing at Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai.
Song added that Tesla has grown rapidly thanks to the complete new energy vehicle (NEV) industry cluster in the Yangtze River Delta region, Shanghai's magnetism for global high-end talents, the advantageous geographical location for transport, and the high-quality business environment.
According to Lu Yu, an official with the Lin-gang special area administration, as the first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturing enterprise in China, Tesla has rapidly promoted the localization of the supply chain, driving the intelligent NEV industry to become the first industrial cluster worth over 100 billion yuan (about 13.89 billion U.S. dollars) in the Lin-gang special area.
Currently, Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai has an industrial chain localization rate of more than 95 percent, with 99.99 percent of the employees being Chinese.
Song said that the plant has formed a full ecological chain of new energy auto parts, such as batteries, automotive chips and precision machining, in the Yangtze River Delta region.
"Many Chinese parts suppliers are not only deeply engaged in Tesla's global industrial chain, but also recognized by other international automobile companies," Song said.
Data shows that in the first eight months of this year, Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai delivered more than 600,000 vehicles, exceeding the total number achieved in 2021. More than 50 percent of the 889,000 electric vehicles Tesla delivered globally in the first half of this year came from the Shanghai plant.
It has become a global export hub for Tesla, whose cars now sell well in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America.
"This factory is not only a beneficiary of China's reform and opening up, but also a part of the Chinese-style modernization drive, and it is glad to see that China's economy is full of vitality and resilience," Song said.
Tesla's performance is an epitome of numerous foreign companies thriving in China. According to the latest report issued by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, more than 80 percent of the foreign enterprises surveyed expect the profit rate of investment in China this year to either be flat or increase.
Lu said that the Lin-gang special area administration will provide tailored services for each key project to promote the replication of "Tesla speed" in more projects. ■
