Electric car manufacturer, Tesla said that production at its Shanghai, China factory could not start today, Monday (4/4/2022). This is due to the lockdown in Shanghai which was carried out amid a spike in Covid-19 cases.
Quoted from Reuters, Tesla originally planned to resume production today, as it was expected to see its first wave of workers released from the city lockdown.
However, the production plan has been cancelled. Tesla did not elaborate on the reasons or say when production activity would resume.
“This has been a very difficult quarter due to supply chain disruptions and China's zero-COVID policy,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote in a tweet Saturday.
Tesla's factory in Shanghai produces cars for the Chinese market, which is the world's largest electric vehicle market. In addition, the Tesla factory in Shanghai is also an export center for electric vehicles outside China and America. Tesla's Shanghai factory has stopped production since March 28, 2022, after the government decided to impose a lockdown in the city where the factory is located.
Tesla had originally hoped to halt operations for only four days, but canceled plans to resume production for Friday and Saturday after authorities extended strict movement restrictions in the eastern part of the city.
Currently, nearly all of Shanghai is under lockdown. The shutdown marks the longest since the factory started production at the end of 2019. Tesla produces 6,000 Model 3 and 10,000 Model Y cars per week at the Shanghai plant.
