Tesla’s Shanghai factory has achieved a significant milestone, rolling out its 3 millionth vehicle today, less than five years after the plant began operations. The announcement was made via Tesla’s official Weibo account, highlighting the rapid production growth at its largest factory worldwide.
The facility produced its first 1 million vehicles in just 32 months, while the subsequent million vehicles were completed in a remarkably swift 13 months, indicating a doubling in growth rate. Tesla noted that Giga Shanghai is the company’s most efficient manufacturing site, with an average vehicle assembly time of over 30 seconds per unit.
In addition to serving the local market, the Shanghai factory operates as Tesla’s global export hub, having shipped out 1 million vehicles to various countries across the Asia-Pacific and Europe.
Construction of Giga Shanghai commenced on January 7, 2019, with the factory becoming operational by the end of that year. Notably, it represents the first wholly foreign-owned automotive manufacturing project in China. The facility began delivering Model 3 sedans in January 2020, followed by Model Y crossovers in January 2021.
The factory marked the milestone of producing its one millionth mass-produced vehicle on August 13, 2022, and reached the two million mark on September 6, 2023. Tesla’s production facility is characterized by high automation, with a reported automation rate of 95 percent, enabling the completion of tasks that previously required hundreds or thousands of workers to be done by just a few dozen robotic arms.
In the third quarter of this year, Tesla achieved record sales of 249,135 China-made vehicles, representing an increase of 11.96 percent year-on-year and a 21.09 percent rise compared to the previous quarter.
This performance accounted for 53.82 percent of Tesla’s global deliveries of 462,890, up from 46.34 percent in the second quarter and 51.15 percent a year earlier. On September 28, Tesla also announced it reached the milestone of exporting 1 million vehicles from its Shanghai factory.
