Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai has produced its 6 millionth battery pack, marking another production milestone at the electric vehicle maker’s largest manufacturing facility.
Tesla announced the milestone on Weibo on Tuesday, about nine months after the Shanghai plant produced its 5 millionth battery pack in November 2025. The latest 1 million battery packs were therefore produced in roughly nine months.
Shanghai Plant Produces Battery Packs at Scale
Tesla said it continues to conduct in-house research and development and independent design work covering battery cell chemistry and pack structures.
The company also said its battery packs undergo multiple testing processes focused on performance, service life and safety.
While Tesla assembles battery packs at Giga Shanghai, it does not manufacture battery cells itself in China. The plant primarily sources cells from CATL and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution.
Giga Shanghai Remains Tesla’s Largest Production Base
Located in Shanghai’s Lingang New Area, Giga Shanghai was Tesla’s first vehicle manufacturing facility outside the United States and China’s first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturing project.
Construction began in January 2019, with production starting later that year. Deliveries of China-made Model 3 vehicles began in January 2020, followed by Model Y production in January 2021.
The facility currently has annual production capacity of around 1 million vehicles, according to Tesla, making it the company’s largest manufacturing base globally.
Over more than six years of operation, the plant has accounted for nearly half of Tesla’s global electric vehicle deliveries.
Giga Shanghai also produced Tesla’s 10 millionth electric drive system globally in August 2024 and its 4 millionth China-made Tesla vehicle in December 2025. Tesla announced in late July that global production had reached 10 million electric vehicles.
Exports Offset Weaker China Sales
The manufacturing milestone comes as Tesla’s domestic sales performance in China has weakened.
Tesla delivered 27,249 vehicles in China in July, down 32.91% from a year earlier, according to figures compiled by CnEVPost based on data from the China Passenger Car Association. July marked the second consecutive month of year-on-year declines.
Exports have helped maintain utilization at the Shanghai facility.
Giga Shanghai exported 66,330 vehicles in July, its highest monthly export volume, accounting for 70.88% of the plant’s wholesale sales during the month.
During the first seven months of 2026, the plant exported 295,324 vehicles, an increase of 130.12% from the same period a year earlier. The figure already exceeds the 226,034 vehicles exported during the whole of 2025.
Over the same seven-month period, Tesla’s China deliveries fell 12.44% year on year to 266,204 vehicles.
New Model Y Variant Could Broaden Local Lineup
Tesla is also expanding its product lineup in China as it seeks to support local demand.
Information released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last week showed that a new Model Y variant has a 659-kilometre range and is expected to be a performance-oriented version.
The new model could add another configuration to Tesla’s China lineup while the Shanghai facility continues to serve both domestic and international markets.
The 6 millionth battery pack milestone highlights the scale of Giga Shanghai’s operations, even as the plant increasingly relies on overseas shipments to maintain production volumes amid weaker Chinese demand.
